I'm Your Daughter
by ParzivalHallows
Summary: Jenny is sent back in time by a Weeping Angel, straight into the Doctor's arms, but the problem is, he isn't her Doctor. Jenny soon learns that traveling with the Doctor isn't as marvelous as people make it out to be. (Doctor's 9-11 plus companions)
1. The End of the World

**I'm Your Daughter**

Chapter 1:

Jenny honestly hadn't meant to stumble across a TARDIS, only for it to be taken by a Weeping Angel. Some could argue it really wasn't her fault at all. The Doctor and Rose still had a hard time believing her story, which went something like this:

Jenny had been flying the rocket she'd stolen when she got a distress signal, coming from a…void… but it was time lords, she could _sense _it. There was nobody on the planet, if it even was a planet. The whole thing seemed… dead… the only thing that Jenny had found was two bodies – two mangled bodies. Though the sight of the woman with a man's arm and the man with the leg of a woman sickened her, she managed to push herself forward. There were voices, screaming out for help, and for the first time in a long time Jenny was scared.

Her father had told her about the time lords briefly, and he'd said that there was no way she would ever be a proper time lord. Or whatever they called a female time lord, her father had never told Donna because he thought of her as an echo and nothing else. Jenny just referred to herself as a time lord, hoping she didn't sound completely stupid saying that. What if these other time lords thought the same thing as her father had? Would they accept her as the Doctor eventually had, or would they cast her aside?

She was shaking by the time she reached a closet door… the time lords couldn't fit themselves into a box, could they? She didn't think that her father knew how to shrink, and Jenny definitely didn't know how to. That meant only one thing, but she had to be sure…

…it opened, and Jenny was greeted with the sight of bright boxes. The same box that had appeared to her before, the distress signal. These were time lords lost in the Time War, all calling out for help. Jenny closed her eyes and a single tear leaked out. It was terrible, listening to their screams and cries, pleads, and even the ones trying to stay calm. All calling out for help. Locked forever in a Time War.

She took a deep breath and wiped the tear away, trying to keep herself calm. There was a terrible sadness in her, like the loss of a friend, like having her father taken away from her all over again… she wondered if he were even alive, which was a horrible thought, but a thought all the same. Had he ever gone back to her home planet to visit her grave? If so, did they tell him what had happened? Was it possible he was looking for her right now?

Somehow, the answer in her heavy heart said everything. He wasn't coming to find her.

She took another deep breath and shut the door, trying to block out the cries from inside. Each step away from the boxes felt like agony to her; she wished she could help them, she truly did, but there was nothing she could do, and that more than anything made her feel like the worst time lord in the world. If she even was a time lord, she could just be an echo.

She felt before the saw the many TARDIS's, now in their graves, alone and abandoned on the planet (if it was a planet). She gasped at the sight, the horror rising in her again, at the thought of something so pure ruined. She'd never been inside a TARDIS before, but she'd heard about them in her travels, and she knew that if she'd been able to travel with the Doctor, it would have been in a TARDIS.

"Oh dad," she whispered, "I hope your TARDIS isn't among these."

She slowly walked forward, a tingling that lifted her neck hair on end up alerted her that it wasn't only TARDIS's in this… graveyard. Her hearts started beating rapidly at the thought of something living among these TARDIS's, scavenging their remains. What could it be?

She continued forward, trying to keep silent, but too curious to run all the same. She loved the running, but sometimes it got a bit dull. She wondered, not for the first time, how her dad and Donna did it.

Her gaze was attracted to an enclosed one, large enough to swallow half of the planet if it wasn't dead. She stared at it in shock, how huge it was compared to the rest… but why? It seemed like all of the TARDIS's were around the same size… so why was this one so much bigger? It was the shape of an oval, and if it hadn't been so rusty, she could tell it would have been bright silver. It was beautiful…

She walked towards the intriguing TARDIS, knowing that if she had the choice, she would pick this one in a heartbeat. She hesitated when she reached an opening, which had most likely been doors, of the TARDIS. It was now or never….

She took a deep sigh and stepped into the huge TARDIS. It was dark inside, so dark she had trouble seeing in front of her. She walked forward slightly, feeling along the smooth walls of the TARDIS, wondering where its control center may have been. She could feel something behind her, the same feeling she'd had before, like there was something that shouldn't be there. She shivered, it was getting closer. She turned around, trying to see through the darkness where the entrance was, but she'd ventured too deep. She tried feeling along, and promptly bumped into something hard. Like a statue.

"Ouch! What was –"

She felt a stone-hard hand grasp her shoulder painfully, and then she was gone.

But where was she? Jenny was asking herself the same question as she looked around in awe. It was hot wherever she was.

She had to have been in some kind of… space station. There was a large window, with a breathtaking sight. Below her was a planet, a planet like she'd never seen before. It was blue and green with what looked like white storm clouds covering some parts of it. She assumed the green was land and the blue was water… although she'd been to a few planets where the colors were the exact opposite. Note to self: Never swim in green water. It's disgusting.

Suddenly, what Jenny recognized as the sun, flared bright red. She had to close her eyes against the brightness, but she could still see the red through her eyelids. Realizing that she was crouching down on the ground, she quickly straightened up and brushed off her pants. She was reluctant to leave the sight, the beautiful sight, but she knew that there were more pressing matters, such as where she was and why she was hovering above a planet that was probably about to roast.

Trying to stay calm, Jenny wandered out into the hallway, bumping straight into a tall man in a leather jacket, who had been talking to a blonde-haired girl.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she apologized, "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's alright love, come to see the end of Earth as well?"

"Um…" Jenny blinked, was that where she was? An observation deck? "Yeah, yeah sure. I mean yes I am."

The man rose an eyebrow but chose not to comment, "well you're welcome to join us. Is that alright Rose?" the blonde girl next to him nodded, "that's fine with me."

Rose gave Jenny a friendly smile that Jenny returned. Jenny looked around as a voice spoke, echoing through the halls, a computer most likely judging by the monotonous tone. "_Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for fifteen thirty nine, followed by drinks in the Manchester suite."_

Jenny tagged along with the man and Rose, keeping close but not wanting to seem needy or clingy. If there was anything she hated, it was someone clinging to her side like a puppy dog. She didn't want to be the puppy dog.

"So, when it says guests, does that mean people?"

Jenny listened carefully to his answer. There was one way of learning something: quiet mouth but loud ears.

"Depends on what you mean by people."

"I mean people. What do you mean?"

"Aliens," said the man, as though this were nothing. Which to Jenny, it really wasn't. Rose, it seemed, was new to this.

"What are they doing on board this spaceship? What's it all for?"

"It's not really a spaceship," Jenny couldn't help cutting in, "it's more of an observation deck."

The man nodded, looking both pleased and a little surprised, "Exactly. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn." As they approached a wall, the man pulled out… no, it couldn't be… it had to have been a different one. She didn't really know anything about time lords – the Doctor could have always picked up a sonic screwdriver from another species. Still, it was unsettling.

"What for?" asked Rose curiously.

"Fun," said the man, shrugging.

Now Jenny knew why the man had been pointing his sonic screwdriver at the wall. A large door, the same color as the wall, had opened to reveal an even larger room inside. There were a few display cases inside of it, and another large window that showed the view of space from the front to above.

"Mind you, when I said the great and the good," the man started, "what I meant is, the rich."

Jenny looked around in admiration, trying to keep track of the conversation while also trying to take in her surroundings at the same time.

"But, hold on," Rose was saying, "they did this once on Newsround Extra. The sun expanding, that takes hundreds of years."

"Millions, but the planet is now property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. See down there? Gravity satellites holding back the sun."

"The planet looks the same as ever," argued Rose. Jenny kept silent, knowing nothing about the planet Earth. "I thought the continents shifted and things."

"They did," replied the man, "and the Trust shifted them back. That's a classic Earth. But now the money's run out, nature takes over."

"How long does it have?" Jenny asked, unaware that Rose had been about to ask the same question.

"About a half an hour, then the planet gets roasted," the man replied.

"Is that why we're here? I mean, is this what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?"

Both Jenny and Rose waited for the man's answer.

"I'm not saving it," he said, and Jenny could _just _detect a hint of regret. "Time's up."

"What about the people?" Rose sounded shocked.

"It's empty. They've all gone. No one left."

"Just me, then," said Rose quietly, but Jenny picked up on it.

"You came from Earth?"

"Yeah," said Rose, "years and years ago," she gave a sort of laugh, "I don't even know when. Feels like minutes."

Jenny nodded slowly, wondering if her day could get any weirder. Her head snapped around as a blue-skinned humanoid walked up to them, its eyes golden slits.

"Who the hell are you?" it snarled, and Jenny assumed it was the steward. The man next to her frowned. "Oh, that's nice, thanks."

"But how did you get in?" the steward glared, "this is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

"That's me," said the man brightly, "I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation. Look," he waved a piece of paper in front of the steward's eyes. "There, you see? It's fine, you see? The Doctor plus two," Jenny wasn't sure if the Doctor heard her gasp or not. If he did, he ignored it. "I'm the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler, and this is –" the Doctor glanced at her, and she cleared her throat, "Jenny Smith."

"Jenny Smith," repeated the Doctor with a smile, "they're my plus two. Is that alright?"

The Doctor put away the piece of paper he had in his pocket, and Jenny was surprised that the steward seemed to fall for it. What had he seen on that blank piece of paper? "Well, obviously," the steward apologized, though he still sounded slightly grumpy. "Apologies, et cetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy."

The steward turned and left them in favor of walking towards a lecturn.

"What was on that paper?" Jenny asked the Doctor curiously, "Why did he think you were invited?"

"Because it said so on the paper," the Doctor replied.

"It's blank," said Jenny, frowning.

"The paper's slightly psychic," the Doctor explained. "It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time. Rose, are you paying attention?"

"He's blue," said Rose, still looking after the steward.

"Yeah."

"Okay."

They all turned to the steward as he called out. "We have in attendance the Doctor, Rose Tyler and Jenny Smith. Thank you. All staff to their positions."

A lot of small people suddenly appeared, causing Jenny to backtrack. She hadn't seen them before.

"Hurry now," the steward said, "thank you. Quick as we can. Come along, come along. And now, might I introduce our next honored guest? Representing the Forest of Cheam, we have trees," Jenny and Rose exchanged a quick glance, "namely, Jabe, Lute and Coffa."

A bark-skinned woman entered the room with two larger male escorts.

The steward continued, "there will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you. Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have Moxx of Balhoon." Moxx was yet another blue alien, from what Jenny could see only a head and upper body, sitting on a transport pod.

"And next, from Financial Family Seven, we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme."

There was a black-robed bipeds at this.

As they went past, the steward continued, "the inventors of the Hypo-slip Travel Systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen. Thank you."

Jenny spotted fur-clad reptilians, who she assumed to be the inventors of the Hypo-slip. "Cal Spark Club," the steward continued again, "Mister and Mrs Pakoo. The Ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light."

The tree-people approached the Doctor. Jabe was the first to speak. "The Gift of Peace. I bring you a cutting of my grandfather," she gave the Doctor a rooted twig in a small pot.

"Thank you," said the Doctor, and Jenny could tell he was doing some quick thinking. "Yes, gifts. Er, I give you in return air from my lungs."

He breathed gently on Jabe, and Jenny was surprised when she subconsciously leaned in closer. "How intimate," she said, causing both Jenny and Rose to frown.

"There's more where that came from," said the Doctor with a grin, and Jenny had to suppress a groan. If this was her father (but how could he be?) then he was hitting on someone in front of her.

"I bet there is," replied Jabe with the same smile.

The steward spoke over them, "From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, everyone please welcome the Face of Boe!"

A large, glass case barely made it through the doorway. It contained a giant, flesh-colored humanoid head with tentacle-like hair and squinting eyes.

The Doctor was again approached, this time by Moxx. "The Moxx of Balhoon," the Doctor said in greeting.

"My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily salivas."

Moxx spat and hit Rose in the face. Jenny winced in sympathy, but the Doctor didn't seem put out or offended in any way. "Thank you!" he said brightly, and Moxx walked away.

The next to approach them was the black robed group, who glided up to them smoothly.

"Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme!" the Doctor exclaimed, "I give you air from my lungs." He breathed on them heavily as he said this.

The adherent held out a large, metal hand and handed the Doctor a ball. "A gift of peace in all good faith."

"And last but not least," the steward called out, "our very special guest! Ladies and gentlemen, and trees and multiforms, consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen."

A face in a piece of thin skin stretched in a rectangular frame was wheeled in by two men hidden in top-to-toe hospital whites.

"Oh now, don't stare," Cassandra said in a husky voice that plainly said she wanted them to stare, "I know, I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference! Look how thin I am," Jenny almost snorted. Thin was an understatement. "Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me, moisturize me," she added, and one of the men grabbed a pump spray and sprayed what was possibly water on her skin. Or moisturizer. Jenny wasn't really good with that kind of stuff. Rose was looking sickened.

"Truly, I am the Last Human. My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye. Oh no tears, no tears," she said quickly, even though nobody was crying, "I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils." Now Rose looked close to laughing, and she started walking to the back of Cassandra, Jenny following after, trying to see exactly how thin she was. "Or was that my late husband? Oh, no. Oh don't laugh," Jenny was surprised that there were actually a few chuckles at that. "I'll get laughter lines! And here, another rarity."

A box was rolled in the room, "according to archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!"

One of the men touched a small button on it, and the sound of singing rose from the box. Despite herself, Jenny was curious.

"Refreshments will now be served," the steward called out over the music, "Earth death in thirty minutes."

Jenny felt something brush past her, and she turned to see Rose running out of the room. Confused and baffled, Jenny ran out after her. From the corner of her eye she saw the Doctor attempt to do the same, but he was intercepted by more aliens.

Jenny was panting by the time she reached Rose, who had slowed down, looking lost. Jenny fell in step next to her, unsure if she should say anything. Rose turned around suddenly, but was looking past Jenny, up at the glowing sun. Jenny stood beside her in respectful silence, when someone appeared around the corner, causing them both to jump.

"Sorry, are we allowed to be in here?" Rose asked the blue-skinned alien, who was wearing overalls and a cap.

"You have to give us permission to talk," said the young woman, who was the same species as the steward.

Rose and Jenny exchanged a glance. "Er, you have permission to talk," said Jenny.

"Thank you. And no, you are not in the way. Guests are allowed anywhere."

"Okay," said Rose, looking relieved. The alien walked to the wall panel and opened it.

"What's your name?" Jenny asked the alien, who was quiet before speaking. "Raffalo."

"Raffalo?" Rose repeated.

"Yes, miss. I won't be long, I've just got to carry out some maintenance. There's a tiny little glitch in the Face of Boe's suite. There must be something blocking the system. He's not getting any hot water."

"So, you're a plumber?" Rose asked.

"That's right, miss," said Raffalo.

"They still have plumbers?" Rose questioned, sounding a little overwhelmed.

"I hope so, else I'm out of a job," Raffalo sighed.

"Where are you from?" asked Jenny.

"Crespallion," Raffalo answered, and Rose frowned. "That's a planet, is it?"

"No," Jenny answered before Raffalo could, "Crespallion's part of the Jaggit Brocade, affiliated to the Scarlet Junction, Convex fifty six."

Raffalo nodded, looking at her with wide eyes. "Yes, miss. And where are you both from? If you don't mind me asking," she added quickly.

"No, not at all. Er, I don't know, a long way away. I just sort of hitched a lift with this man…I didn't even think about it," Rose was starting to sound both confused and a little shocked at her choice. "I don't even know who he is. He's a complete stranger…."

Jenny took this time to cut in. "I'm from the planet Messaline. Far off from this planet. It's really a pile of rubbish, though I bet it looks better than it did now that I'm off of it. I don't think I'd ever want to go back though," she added as an afterthought. "Anyway, I won't keep you waiting. Good luck with it."

"Thank you miss. And, er," she looked slightly embarrassed, "thank you for the permission, both of you. Most people are not that considerate."

"Okay. See you later," said Rose in a friendly voice, though Jenny could tell her mind was still on something else. Jenny started to guide her out of the room and back into the corridor, still not sure what to say now that they were alone together again.

…

Jenny was pacing around, lost in thought, as Rose played with the ball that the adherents had given them.

"_Earth death in twenty five minutes,"_ called out the computer. Rose huffed, "Oh, thanks."

She put the ball back down and picked up the flower pot. "Hello, my name's Rose. That's a sort of plant. We might be related," she stopped, blinking. "I'm talking to a twig."

Jenny laughed, "I've seen worse."

Neither of them saw the ball hatch.

"Rose? Jenny? Are you in there?" the two girls turned at the sound of the Doctor's voice. "Aye, aye," he said when he spotted the two. "What do you think, then?"

"Great," Rose said, a little too quickly. "Yeah, fine. Once you get past the psychic paper. They're just… so alien," Rose exclaimed, and Jenny stared at her. "The aliens are so alien. You look at 'em, and they're alien! 'Cept for Jenny."

Jenny chose not to comment on this.

"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South," said the Doctor, his tone a lot calmer then hers was.

"Where are you from?" Rose asked him, and Jenny turned away, looking up at the sun.

"All over the place," said the Doctor evasively.

"They all speak English," breathed Rose. Jenny frowned – there were a lot of times where she stumbled across aliens who didn't speak English. She had to learn their languages, which was easier because of the military training. It helped her pick up on things.

"No," the Doctor disagreed, and Jenny turned back around to look at the two of them. "You just hear English. It's the gift of the TARDIS. The telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translates," he said this as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's inside my brain?" Rose deadpanned, and Jenny hid a grin.

"Well, in a good way," said the Doctor quickly.

"Your machine gets inside my head," said Rose, in the same voice. "It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?"

"I didn't think about it like that," said the Doctor defensively.

"No," said Rose, and Jenny could detect an argument… or at least a one-sided argument… about to go down. "You were too busy thinking up cheap shots about the Deep South. Who are you then, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?"

"I'm just the Doctor."

"From what planet?" Rose demanded, and the Doctor frowned. "Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is!"

"Where are you from?" apparently, Rose was very stubborn.

"What does it matter?" the Doctor sounded slightly panicked now, and a tad angry.

"Tell me who you are!" Rose yelled.

"This is who I am," the Doctor exclaimed, "Right here, right now, alright? All that counts is here and now, and this is me."

Jenny mentally sighed… no, this man wasn't her dad… this wasn't him… which it wasn't! How could her dad change his face? It was a bit odd that there was another person called the Doctor who traveled through space and time though…

"Yeah, and I'm here too because you brought me here. So just tell me."

The computer cut through what would have been the Doctor's reply. _"Earth Death in twenty minutes. Earth death in twenty minutes."_

"All right," said Rose, obviously trying to calm herself down. "As my mate Shareen says, don't argue with the designated driver." Rose took out something from her pocket, which Jenny had no idea what it was. It looked like some sort of communication device.

"Can't exactly call for a taxi," Rose sighed, staring at the communication device forlornly. "There's no signal, we're out of range. Just a bit."

"Tell you what," said the Doctor, and he grabbed the device, and started to take it apart. "With a little bit of jiggery pokery."

"Is that a technical term," asked Jenny, speaking for the first time in a while. "Jiggery pokery?"

"Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?"

"No, I failed hullabaloo."

"Oh! There you go," said the Doctor suddenly, handing the device back to Rose. Looking suspicious, she started pressing a few buttons on it and held it to her ear.

"Mum?"

Jenny watched in fascination as Rose had a conversation with her mom over that… device.

"What is it?" Jenny asked the Doctor finally, who tilted his head slightly. "It's called a phone. A cell phone. You have to pay for it though… usually." He winked at Jenny before turning back to Rose, who'd ended the call. She looked a lot better.

"Think that was amazing, you want to see the bill."

Rose looked at him in astonishment, "That was five billion years ago. So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead."

"Bundle of laughs, you are," said the Doctor with a frown. Rose may have replied… if the space station hadn't started shaking wildly at that precise moment.

"Somehow, I don't think that was supposed to happen," Jenny said, wide-eyed.

"I think it's time to head back," the Doctor agreed. "Come on, let's go."

…

They walked in on the middle of a conversation. "—Bad Wolf scenario. I find the inherit laxity of the on-going multiverse."

"That wasn't a gravity pocket," the Doctor said to Rose and Jenny. "I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe?" he asked the tree-person, who was standing close. "Listen to the engines, they've pitched up about 30 Hertz. That dodgy or what?"

"It's the sound of metal," Jabe said in confusion, "it doesn't make sense to me."

"Where's the engine room?" the Doctor tried again.

"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just beyond out guest suite, I could show you and your wives."

Jenny tried not to show her revulsion at the idea.

"No, they aren't my wives," said the Doctor, looking suspiciously close to laughter.

"Partners?"

"No."

"Concubines?"

"Nope."

"Prostitutes?"

The Doctor opened his mouth, a grin on his face, but Rose cut in. "Whatever we are, it must be invisible. Do you mind? Tell you what, you two go and pollinate. We –" she pointed to Jenny and then herself, "are going to catch up… with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson!"

Before Jenny could ask who Michael Jackson was, Rose had grabbed her by the arm (rather hard) and pulled her over to Cassandra.

"Don't start a fight!" the Doctor called after them, but they ignored him.

He offered Jabe his arm, who linked hers in his. "I'm all yours," the Doctor said to Jabe, causing Jenny to roll her eyes.

"And I want you home by midnight!" Rose called after them in a teasing tone. She quickly sobered at the computer voice. _"Earth Death in fifteen minutes. Earth Death in fifteen minutes."_

"What do you mean that you want him home by midnight? And who's Michael Jackson?" Jenny whispered to Rose, who blinked.

"Blimey I keep forgettin' you're not from Earth. There's this thing on Earth, it's called a curfew, parents usually give it to their kids, 'specially when they go out on dates and stuff. Michael Jackson is a famous singer back on Earth in my time… so, on Messaline, is it all humans? You are human, right?"

"Half of the population is human, and the other half are the Hath. They're sort of like fish I guess, but they're as big as humans and walk on two legs and have two arms. We used to be at war with them, but the day I left the war was over."Jenny didn't say she was a time lord.

They approached Cassandra, the "Last Human".

"Soon, the sun will blossom into a red giant," she was saying, "and my home will die. That's where I used to live, when I was a little boy, down there. Mummy and daddy had a little house built into the side of Los Angeles Crevice. I'd have such fun."

"What happened to everyone else?" Rose asked, "the human race, where did it go?"

"They say mankind has touched every star in the sky," Cassandra answered her.

"So, you're not the last human," Jenny confirmed, and Rose frowned.

"I am the last pure human. The others mingled. Oh, and they called themselves New Humans and Proto-humans and Digi-humans and even 'Humanish'. But you know what I call them? Mongrels."

"Right. And you stayed behind?" asked Jenny.

"I kept myself pure," said Cassandra in a snotty voice.

"How many operations have you had?" Rose asked curiously, eyeing her skin.

"Seven hundred and eight," said Cassandra proudly. "Next week, it's seven hundred and nine. I'm having my blood bleached. Is that why you wanted a word? You could be a flatter, Rose and Jenny. You have a little bit of chin pointing out," she added in a disgusted tone.

"I'd rather die," said Rose heatedly, and Jenny nodded her approval.

"Honestly, it doesn't hurt."

"No, I mean it. I would rather die. It's better to die than live like you, a bitchy trampoline."

Jenny at least knew what a trampoline was – they had some on Messaline. She snorted audibly.

Cassandra glared at the two of them. "Oh well, what do you know."

"I was born on that planet," said Rose, glaring right back at Cassandra. Jenny had to admire her courage. "So was my mum, and so was my dad, and that makes me officially the last human in this room, 'cos you're not a human, you've had it all nipped and tucked and flattened till there's nothing left. Anything human got chucked in the bin. You're just skin, Cassandra. Lipstick and skin. Nice talking."

Rose whipped around and Jenny followed after, a grin on her face, as the adherents watched them leave. "Nice," Jenny complimented her, and Rose giggled. "Well it's true!"

…

Jenny sensed it before she saw it. "Rose watch out –" Rose whipped around, and her eyes widened. "Jenny, behind you!"

Rose was knocked out as the adherent that had appeared behind her pistol whipped a weapon around her head. "NO –" Jenny yelled, but was cut off by a sharp pain in the back of her head. As she faded to unconsciousness, Jenny was horribly reminded of when the bullet had pierced her left heart.

…

Jenny woke up groggily, her mind working slowly as she lifted herself off of the floor. She blinked to get the fuzziness away, and her eyes widened. The first thing she saw was the sun, the second thing she saw was Rose lying next to her, also unconscious.

"Rose, ROSE –"

Rose whipped upright as the computer voice flooded the room. _"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending." _

They both covered their eyes against the deadly glare, and stumbled towards the general direction of the door. "NO!"

"Let us out!"

"LET US OUT!"

"HELP!"

"_Sun filter descending."_

"No, no, no, no this can't be happening," Jenny was shaking, "I can't believe it!"

There was a sudden, very welcomed noise from the door – the sonic screwdriver. "Anyone in there?"

"Let us out!" Rose and Jenny yelled at the same time.

"Oh well, it would be you two," came the Doctor's sarcastic voice.

"Open the door!" Rose growled.

"Hold on. Give us two ticks."

"_Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending." _

Jenny grabbed onto Rose's arm to keep her calm, "it's okay, the Doctor's here," she whispered to her, blinking harshly against the light. Rose didn't say anything, just turned back to the door.

"The computer's getting clever!" shouted the Doctor. Jenny snapped; she was tired and very, very, _very _hot. "Stop mucking about!"

"I'm not mucking about," said the Doctor, sounding slightly offended. "It's fighting back."

"Open the door!" Rose shouted. Jenny glanced over at her; there was sweat glistening all over her body, and Jenny was sure that she was plastered in just as much sweat.

"I know!" the Doctor yelled back.

"The lock's melted!" exclaimed Rose, and Jenny started to shake again. She did not come all this way just to be killed by a sun.

"_Sun filter descending, sun filter descending."_

"The whole thing's jammed!" Jenny heard the Doctor yell. "I can't open the doors. Stay there! Don't move!"

"Where are we going to go, Ipswich?" Rose yelled sarcastically.

"_Earth Death in five minutes. Earth Death in five minutes."_

Jenny fell back against the door, trying to fight off tears. Rose knelt down beside her, "Hey it's okay… like you said, the Doctor's here," she murmured to her. Jenny shook her head. "Where?"

"He'll come back," Rose said firmly, though Jenny could tell that Rose was unsure himself. "He always comes back."

They both cringed at the sound of the computer's voice. _"Heat Rising. Earth Death in two minutes. Earth Death in two minutes." _

Jenny groaned and Rose put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Heat levels critical."

"So far, everything we've heard since the Doctor left, is basically telling us our doom."

"Don't think like that, the Doctor is comin', just wait."

"_Heat levels rising, heat levels rising."_ Rose sat down next to Jenny, sighing. "I think you're right," she said eventually. "Maybe this time, the Doctor isn't comin'."

"_External temperature five thousand degrees. Heat levels hazardous." _

Jenny looked up as the window began to crack, and she felt Rose lean in close to her. "Oh god…" Rose whispered, sounding close to tears.

"_Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction." _

Light, bright enough to give them both deadly burns, danced through the openings in the cracks. "NO!" Rose screamed, and Jenny turned her head away.

There was a loud noise, and Jenny peaked up just in time to see the Earth explode, before it all headed for them. She dipped her head again and waited for the blast that would turn her and Rose to crisps.

It didn't come.

She looked up in confusion, and heard Rose gasp. The cracks in the window had started to repair themselves… but there was no more Earth, only rocks remained of the beautiful planet.

"_Exoglass repair,"_ said the computer's monotonous voice.

…

By the time Jenny and Rose walked into the observation deck, they were greeted with the sight of Moxx of Bahloon's dead body, fried to a crisp. Jenny and Rose watched as the Doctor raced over to the other two trees, and from the looks on their faces, it was bad news.

He slowly made his way over to Rose and Jenny. "I'm sorry," he said.

"You alright?" asked Rose, her concern for the Doctor more pressing then any quarrel she might have had with him.

"Yeah I'm fine," said the Doctor, but the sad look on his face disagreed with his words. "I'm full of ideas. I'm bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby."

He grabbed the ostrich egg that Cassandra had so generously brought, and smashed it to pieces. Inside of it was a small device.

"Idea number three, if you're as clever as me –" okay, _that _sounded like her father. Were all men with the name 'Doctor' stuck up about how clever they were? "then a teleportation feed can be reversed."

He pressed a button on the feed, and Cassandra appeared back in. She had appeared to be in the middle of talking, but the words seemed to be stuck in her throat as she stared around at them all.

"Oh."

"The last human," the Doctor's voice wasn't friendly.

"So, you passed my little test," said Cassandra flippantly. "Bravo. That makes you eligible to join, er, the Human club."

"People have died Cassandra," the Doctor said in a low voice that somehow seemed threatening. "You murdered them."

"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter -"

"And creak?" Jenny piped up.

Cassandra cut herself off. "And what?"

"Creak. You're creaking," Jenny pointed out, and sure enough, she was.

"What? Ah! I'm drying out! Oh sweet heavens, moisturize me! Moisturize me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys? It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature," said the Doctor.

"Have pity! Moisturize me! Oh, oh Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything."

"Help her," said Rose suddenly. She looked sick.

"Everything has its time and everything dies," replied the Doctor without pity.

"I'm too young!" Cassandra screamed, before the skin melted away, leaving nothing but the metal bars that had held her skin stretched out.

…

The Doctor, Rose and Jenny were the only ones who hadn't left. They were staring out at the asteroids that used to be Earth.

"Was it a very beautiful planet?" Jenny asked suddenly.

"Extremely," replied Rose sadly. "The grass, the water, the beaches, the skies…" she shook her head. "And it's all gone."

"No, it isn't," the Doctor assured her. "When you go back home, the Earth will be the same as ever."

Rose didn't say anything, and the Doctor turned to look at Jenny.

"Do you like traveling Jenny?"

Jenny blinked at the unexpected question. "Yeah, I suppose I do… why?"

The Doctor glanced over at Rose, before looking back at Jenny. "Do you want to see the Earth?"

Jenny saw Rose look sharply at the two of them.

"But… it's gone," she said in confusion, glancing out at the asteroids – what was left of Earth.

"Not five thousand years ago it's not."

Rose stood up and went to stand next to the Doctor. Jenny looked between the two of them.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Rose, would you mind if Jenny hitched a ride to Earth with us?"

"I don't have a problem with it."

Jenny's eyes widened, "You mean… come with you!?"

Rose grinned, "Why not? I'll show you around Earth, yeah?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," Jenny laughed, "I'd like that a lot."

…

"You think it'll last forever," said the Doctor to Rose and Jenny. They were watching the people of Earth wander the streets. Jenny didn't think she'd ever seen a planet so beautiful… and so loud! "People and cars and concrete… but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone –" Jenny looked at him sharply. "- it's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before its time."

"What happened?" asked Rose, and Jenny clenched her hands as he answered. "There was a war and we lost."

"A war with who? What about your people?" Rose asked in concern.

"I'm a time lord," Jenny felt her gut clench. "the last of the time lords. They're all gone, I'm the only survivor. I'm left traveling on my own 'cos there's no one else."

"There's us," said Rose quickly, putting a hand on Jenny's arm.

"You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home? And Jenny, I can bring you back to where you were before if you don't have your transportation."

"If Rose goes with you I'll go, if not…" she trailed off. Rose was looking between the two of them. "I don't know. I want. Oh, can you smell chips?" she said suddenly.

"Yeah. Yeah," said the Doctor, nodding.

"I want chips," she said.

"Me too," the Doctor agreed.

"Me three," said Jenny, hoping she wasn't intruding on a private moment. Rose gave her a grin, so Jenny knew it was okay.

"Right then, before you get us back in that box, chips it is, and you can pay."

"No money."

"What sort of date are you?" Rose winked at Jenny before turning back to the Doctor to continue her sentence. "Come on then, tightwad, chips are on me. We've only got five billion years till the shops close!"

Jenny laughed, but the Doctor hung back and grabbed her arm.

"Who are you Jenny Smith?"

Jenny stared at him, "I don't understand."

"You're right, better question: what are you?"

She paused, not exactly sure how to answer that. She decided to break it to him… if he even was her father. "You know, you remind me of my dad," she said conversationally. This seemed to throw him off. "Your dad? How do I remind you of your dad?"

"Well first off, you're both named the Doctor," she said meaningfully, not waiting to see if he had anything to say about that. "You're both mad geniuses, and you both see planets and travel in time. You're a bit older-looking though," she commented. The Doctor had been staring at her with wide eyes, but at her last sentence, he managed to give a mock offended fake and scoff. "Right, how old is your dad?"

"I have no idea, only met him the once… but he was about 30ish maybe. Lots of brown hair. Thin, really thin…" she glanced up at him. "But that couldn't have been you… right? You'd have to be a completely different person… right?" she said slowly. He didn't answer her straight away. "I've never been to the planet Messaline," the Doctor said, as though this were an answer. "How old is your dad? He can't really be 30ish, I mean, you look like you're in your twenties maybe."

"I'm going to be four… I think," she added, trying to rack her brains. "I kind of lost track of time."

"…okay, tell me something, was your dad a human?"

"'Course not," she said, "He was a time lord… called the Doctor."

The Doctor stared at her. "Could always be a time lord pretending to be me… how do you even know he was a time lord?" he demanded.

"My planet was at war, I had just been made, so I was still cooking –"

"Just been _made?" _the Doctor cut her off. Jenny nodded. "I'm a generated anomaly. A tissue sample was taken from my father's skin, forcefully if the soldiers shoving his hand in the machine was anything to go by. I was force grown as an adult with military training burned inside my head," she pointed at her head as she said this. "Long story short we were thrown in a jail cell together because he was trying to stop the war with the Hath, while the humans just wanted to win it. They didn't think I could be trusted since I was his…daughter…so they stuck me with him too, and his companion. He had two, but the one girl, Martha, had been kidnapped by the Hath. So it was me, my father and Donna. Donna found my two heart beats, because my father didn't want me tagging along with him… thought… well it doesn't matter what he thought, he ended up changing his mind. But then I got him to talk about the war that the time lords were in… and his face… something in his face made me believe it. It was a tragic, I'll never forget the look on his face. The thing that struck me the most though, was the guilt, the shared pain. That's the look of a soldier who'd forgotten himself," she said, so low that the Doctor had to strain to hear her. He was listening to her every word. "I got us out of the cell…er… doesn't matter how. But we escaped, and I had the chance to kill someone, but I didn't, because he told me I had a choice. He said that killing infects people, so I went against every instinct I had to stop myself from killing someone. I needed him to realize that I was more than just a soldier," she said firmly, taking a deep breath. "He knew, when I told him what had happened… we stopped the fight from happening together after we found Martha. Dad did most of the work though, he was good with words… he had everyone put down their guns. Except for one person. I stepped in front of a bullet for him, and it shot me in one of my hearts. I - I remember…" somehow, the memory of her father cradling her seemed to personal, so instead she said: "I was dead, and then I woke up."

The Doctor paused.

"…Did you… look any different? Like maybe a new person?"

Jenny looked at him in confusion, "No, no I didn't look different. He left though."

"He left you there?" Rose spoke up, and the two of them jumped. Apparently she'd been standing there the whole time, her eyes were huge.

"In all fairness he thought I was dead," Jenny said, still startled by the appearance of Rose.

The Doctor turned to Rose, "how much of that did you hear?"

"Enough to know that you left your daughter without even attending her funeral."

"How do you come to the conclusion that she's my daughter? Could be some other person who goes by the name of the Doctor."

"Who's a time lord?" Rose retaliated. "and you asked her if she looked different, or was different or whatever. So tell me Doctor, why would you ask Jenny somethin' like that?"

The Doctor stared between the two of them, before sighing. "Since we're all sharing and caring, I guess I have to tell you a little cheat the time lords use…"

**Alright, hopefully you enjoyed this. Actually, I really hope you did, and if you did please review or at least favorite or follow it. I need to know that my work is being enjoyed, because if not… I might as well not even bother writing it anymore. **

**Please review! It will make my day (or night). **


	2. The Unquiet Dead

**I'm Your Daughter**

Chapter 2:

Jenny huffed as she was thrown this way and that, not sure if she should hate or enjoy riding in the TARDIS.

"Hold that one down!" the Doctor yelled at Rose, pointing to a control.

"I'm holding this one down!" Rose exclaimed.

"I'll get it!" snapped Jenny, reaching half-way across the consol to grab the control the Doctor had yelled at Rose to get.

"Oi, I promised you two a time machine and that's what you're getting! Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?"

"What happened in 1860?" Rose yelled.

"I don't know," he grinned, "let's find out. Hold on – here we go!"

…

"Do you even know how to fly?" Jenny complained as she got up from her spot on the floor, already feeling the bruises forming.

"Of course I do!" the Doctor groaned.

"Blimey!" Rose gasped, also getting up.

"You're telling me," the Doctor was the last one up. "Are you two alright?"

"Yeah I think so, nothing broken," said Jenny. "Rose, what about you?"

"I'm good too. Did we make it? Where are we?"

"I did it, give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860."

"That's so weird," said Rose. "It's Christmas!"

"What's Christmas?" asked Jenny in confusion.

"A holiday."

"Holiday?" Jenny was feeling more stupid by the minute. The Doctor sighed, "Jenny, there's some books in the back about that stuff. Do me a favor, and next time, _read _them."

"What with your bumpy flying?" Jenny said, offended. The Doctor ignored her.

"Oh come off it, even your lot has to have a Holiday!" Rose said, shoving Jenny teasingly. Jenny frowned, "I was born a soldier. I didn't have the luxury of a holiday or a time machine… holidays are luxurious, yeah?"

Rose laughed, "Depending on who you spend them with."

The Doctor poked his head back inside the TARDIS (and when had he even gotten out?) with a cross expression on his face. "You two coming or not?"

"Alright, hold on!" Rose said, rolling her eyes at his impatience. "Honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to put up with this."

"Look at the bright side, you've got me!" Jenny said with a smile, running out of the TARDIS and bumping straight into her father. "Ow."

"What do you two think you're doing?" he asked, looking shocked at finding the two of them outside the TARDIS. Rose and Jenny exchanged a confused glance. "You told us to come out!"

"Get back inside and dress properly, you'll start a riot, you will! There's a wardrobe through there," the Doctor said, leading them back into the TARDIS. "First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!"

Rose muttered to Jenny as they marched off together, "Did you catch any of that?"

"Some bit about a wardrobe," Jenny grinned.

…

"How do I look?" Jenny asked, twirling around in her dark green dress. She didn't like it at all – it was heavy and altogether was not very flattering fitwise. The only part she liked was that she was able to keep her shoulders bare. She hated the feeling of being too covered up. She quite liked her army outfit to be honest.

"A right side better than I do," said Rose, grimacing down at the black and dark red dress she was wearing. "I look like I'm going to a gothic parade or somethin'!"

"You still look beautiful," said Jenny, "what did you do to your hair?"

Rose's hands automatically flew to her hair, eyes wide. "What, is there somethin' wrong with it?"

"No, no! I like it, it's very… oldish… I'm assuming. Can you do mine like that?"

"Sure!" said Rose, "just sit there. My mum used to do my hair for me when I was in gymnastics and they would make us wear our hair up," she was talking as she did Jenny's hair, who would wince if a bobbypin would scrape her scalp. "I didn't like my hair up, so my mum made it pretty for me. Little braids and buns and all. There," Rose finished up.

"Already?" asked Jenny in shock. "That was fast."

"Yeah, well I've had practice."

"You mean we're in a rush," said Jenny with a knowing grin on her face. Rose shrugged, "knowin' the Doctor, he's probably stroking the TARDIS like it's his wife or something." Jenny scrunched up her face, "I did not need the extra comment about that, but yeah probably," she admitted, to the laughter of Rose. "So it's not just me then? He like, fondles the controls!"

Jenny snickered, "I always knew there was something off about him. Besides the fact that he's my father," she added thoughtfully, and Rose snorted. "Come on," Rose said, leading Jenny back into the console room.

"Do you think we should tell him that the wardrobe was on the first left?" Jenny whispered to Rose as she spotted her father working under the TARDIS.

"Nah, let's have some fun first," Rose said with a sly grin. Jenny walked forward, almost tripping over her heavy dress, which she scowled at.

This got the Doctor's attention, and he looked up at the two of them. "Blimey!"

"Don't laugh," said Rose, blushing.

"You look beautiful though, considering," the Doctor said, not very tactfully in Jenny's opinion.

"Considering what?" asked Rose, looking confused.

"That you're human," the Doctor said as though it were obvious.

"I think that's a compliment," said Rose after a while.

"Aren't you going to change?" asked Jenny.

"I've changed my jumper," said the Doctor with a sigh, "Come on."

"You stay here," said Rose sternly, "Jenny and I haven't done this yet. You have. Just stay put, coming Jenny?"

Jenny hurried to catch up to Rose as they stepped outside, and was suddenly thankful for the thick dress. It blocked out how freezing it was outside! Mostly.

"Ready for this?" asked the Doctor from behind them, sounding excited. "Here we go. History."

They took off down the snowy street, a chorus of voices were risen together in what Jenny recognized as a song. "What are they singing?" she asked her father as they passed the choir.

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," the Doctor answered, casting a quick glance back at them. The trio were passed by a coach, where a woman and a man resided, the woman looking worried. "She's in there sir, I'm certain of it."

"Right," said the man, and they were off.

The Doctor, meanwhile, had bought a newspaper.

"I got the flight a bit wrong," said the Doctor with a frown. Rose shrugged, "I don't care."

"It's not 1860, it's 1869," he explained, though Rose and Jenny weren't fazed.

"We don't care," said Jenny with a sigh.

"And it's not Naples," said the Doctor.

"We don't care," chorused Rose and Jenny.

"It's Cardiff."

Rose had opened her mouth again, most likely to say that she didn't care, but abruptly shut it. "Right."

Before Jenny could ask what Cardiff was, or where, a loud scream tore from the stadium in which the man and woman had disappeared.

"That's more like it!" the Doctor exclaimed.

They arrived just in time to see what looked like a blue gas coming from a corpse and flying around the stadium. The audience fled, pushing past Jenny and her companions in their haste. A man was trying to call for calm, but gave up when he realized he was being ignored.

"Fantastic!" said the Doctor, and the three of them ran closer as the corpse collapsed. "Did you see where it came from?" asked the Doctor as they approached it.

"Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!" the man seemed very angry, and Jenny guessed he was the one whose show was interrupted.

The other man and woman went to pick up the corpse, but Rose stopped them in their tracks. "Oi! Leave her alone! Doctor, I'll get them."

"Careful!" the Doctor called after her. Jenny hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should go with Rose, but if the Doctor trusted her enough with them, that was fine for Jenny. Besides, she wanted to learn more about who this guy was…

"Did it say anything?" her father was questioning. "Can it speak? I'm the Doctor, by the way."

"Doctor?" scoffed the man. "You look more like a navvie."

The Doctor looked offended, and Jenny had to hold in giggles. "What's wrong with this jumper?"

The blue entity flew through the night sky, and the Doctor's eyes widened. "Gas!" he exclaimed. "It's made of gas!"

"We need to go, Jenny." He attempted to race after Rose. "Rose!"

"You're not escaping me, sir." Said the angry man. "What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?"

"Oh come off it!" Jenny yelled at the man, who looked very taken aback (possibly at being yelled at by a girl) and grabbed her father's hand, pulling him to the nearest coach.

"Oi, you, follow that hearse!" the Doctor demanded the driver as soon as they got inside the coach.

"I can't do that, sir," said the driver.

"Why not?" asked Jenny.

"I'll tell you why not! I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach."

"Well I guess you should get a move on then, or I'll do it for you," Jenny growled at the man. "Now follow that hearse!"

The Doctor looked rather proud as the man cracked the whip and started the carriage down the street. "They teach you that in military training too?"

"No, he was irritating me," said Jenny with a shrug, and the Doctor laughed, before growing serious at their slow pace. "Come on, you're losing them!"

"Everything in order, Mr. Dickens?" asked the driver, halting to a stop at the sight of the angry man.

"No! It is not!" Dickens exclaimed, also climbing in.

"What did he say?" asked the Doctor with wide eyes.

"Let me say this first. I'm not without a sense of humor," Dickens ranted, but the Doctor cut him off. "Dickens?"

"Yes." Said the man.

"Charles Dickens!?" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Yes."

"_The _Charles Dickens?"

"Should I remove the gentleman and his mistress sir?" the driver asked Charles Dickens.

"Charles Dickens?" the Doctor exclaimed again. "You are brilliant, you are! Completely, one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and what's that other one? The one with the ghosts?"

"The Christmas Carol?" replied Dickens, sounding a little peeved.

"No, no, no, the one with the trains. The Signal man, that's it! Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius! Jenny, you have to read his books, I have them all in the back," he said, turning to his daughter, who nodded quickly. "Okay then…"

"You want me to get rid of them, sir?" asked the driver again.

"Er, no, I think they can stay."

"Honestly Charles. Can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan!"

"A what? A big what?"

"Fan. Number one fan. That's me."

"How exactly are you a fan?" asked Dickens, looking confused. "In what way do you resemble means of keeping yourself cool?"

"It means fanatic, devoted to," Jenny cut in smoothly before the Doctor could make a bigger mess of things.

"Mind you," said the Doctor, talking over Jenny, "I've got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was it just padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit." Jenny rolled her eyes.

"I thought you said you were my fan," said Dickens, frowning.

"Ah, well, if you can't take criticism. Go on then, to the death of Little Nell! It cracks me up," Jenny shot her father a sharp look at this. Since when did death crack him up? "No, sorry, forget about that," that was more like it… "Come on, faster!"

"Who exactly is in that hearse?"

"My friend. She's only nineteen. It's my fault, she's in my care, and now she's in danger."

"Why are we wasting time talking about dry old books?" Dickens sounded shocked. "This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!"

Jenny leaned in towards the Doctor as the coach went quicker. "Don't be too hard on yourself, it's not only your fault. I should have gone with her."

The Doctor sighed, "then you would have both been taken, and I would feel even more guilty. No, it's better that you stayed with me, now we can rescue Rose together."

"There!" said Jenny suddenly, pointing at the hearth. "I recognize it. They must have stopped there!"

"I say it's time we pay them a little visit," said the Doctor as the driver came to a halt.

…

"I'm sorry sirs, madam, we're closed," said a young, dark-haired Welsh woman.

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Dickens. "Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."

"He's not in, sir," said the woman, looking startled.

"Don't lie to me, child," said Dickens, "summon him at once."

"But the master is indisposed," said the woman, now looking extremely startled, as a gas lamp flared.

"Having any problems with your gas?" asked Jenny, looking up at the gas lamp.

"What the Shakespeare is going on?" Dickens demanded, looking around.

"Enough of this," said the Doctor, and without even a warning, he pushed past the lady, Jenny following right behind him with Dickens at the end.

"You're not allowed inside, sirs! Madam!"

"There's something inside the walls…" murmured the Doctor.

"The gas pipes, something's living inside the gas!" exclaimed Jenny.

They both whipped around at the sound of Rose's voice. "_Let me out! Open the door!"_

"That's her!" said the Doctor and Jenny at the same time. _"Please, please let me out!"_

The trio all ran down the corridor and straight into the master of the house. The woman appeared behind them, looking guilty and ashamed.

"How dare you sir!" exclaimed the man, glaring at Dickens. "This is my house!"

"Shut up," said Dickens, not looking in the mood for this.

The man turned his angry eyes to the young lady, "I told you!"

"_Let me out! Somebody open the door!" _her screams and pleads were even more panicked now, like there was something behind her. "Dad!" the Doctor looked up at Jenny, who nodded towards the door. They both raced over at the same time, the Doctor pulling out his sonic screwdriver. Jenny rolled her eyes, lifted her foot, and kicked the door in.

"…that works too," said the Doctor, putting his screwdriver back in his pocket.

He reached in and grabbed Rose from the… animated… body of a corpse, who was holding her. Jenny stared at it in shock. "I think this is my dance," he said.

"It's a prank," said Dickens, also staring at the animated corpse. "It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence!"

"No, we're not," said the Doctor darkly, "the dead are walking. Hi," he added to Rose.

"Hi," said Rose, looking shaken. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Charles Dickens," said the Doctor, looking slightly proud of this fact.

"Okay," said Rose, wide-eyed, and Jenny had the feeling she knew who he was too.

"My name's the Doctor," the Doctor told the animated corpse, shoving Rose towards Jenny, who caught her in a tight hug. "Who are you then? What do you want?"

Several voices rose from the corpse, chilling Jenny to the bone. "Failing. Open the rift, we're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us! Argh," the gas left the corpse, which collapsed, in favor of returning back into the gas lamp.

…

The woman, who had introduced herself as Gwyneth, was pouring tea for all of them. When in doubt, drink tea. According to her father it fixes everything.

Rose was in the middle of speaking, "first of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man!"

The man, Sneed, looked shocked and angry. "I won't be spoken to like this!"

Rose ignored him. "Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So, come on, talk."

"It's not my fault," said a cross Sneed, "it's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed started getting restless."

"Tommyrot," said Dickens, brushing it off.

"You witnessed it," said Sneed dryly, and Jenny had to admit, Dickens did seem a bit close-minded when it came to ghosts, considering that he apparently wrote stories about them. "Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps."

Gwyneth placed the Doctor's cup on the mantelpiece beside him.

"Two sugars, sir, just how you like it."

"One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir," said Sneed, looking at Dickens, "just as she planned."

"Morbid fancy," said Dickens, though there was uncertainty in his face.

"Oh Charles," the Doctor sighed. "You were there!"

"I saw nothing but an illusion!" Dickens defended.

"If you're going to deny it," said the Doctor, "don't waste my time. Just shut up. What about the gas?"

"That's new sir," said Sneed, "never seen anything like it."

"That must mean that whatever it is, is getting stronger," said Jenny thoughtfully. The Doctor nodded, "the rift is getting wider, and something's sneaking through."

"What's the rift?" asked Rose and Jenny simultaneously.

"A weak point in time and space," answered the Doctor, "a connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."

"That's how I got the house so cheap," said Sneed, "stories going back generations."

Dickens got up at that point, startling everybody, and left the room, slamming it shut behind him.

Sneed ignored this, "Echoes in the dark," he said quietly, "queer songs in the air, and this feeling of a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

"Think we should go after Dickens?" Jenny asked her father, who shrugged. "Don't want him getting lost, do we?"

They both got up to leave, following Dickens, though they didn't slam the door shut behind them. It didn't take them long to spot him. He was by the coffin, waving his hand in front of the corpse's face, as though expecting it to come alive at any minute. When it didn't work, he started examining the coffin itself.

"Checking for strings?" asked the Doctor. Dickens didn't jump, and Jenny had the feeling that he'd known they were there all along.

"Wires perhaps. There must be some kind of mechanism behind this fraud."

"What makes you so sure it's a fraud?" asked Jenny in confusion, "I mean, you've seen it for yourself, more than once, and these people… they don't really look like the type of people who would trick someone over and over again. Come on, open your eyes, listen…they're real. This is happening."

Dickens shook his head. "I cannot accept that."

"What does the human body do when it decomposes?" tried the Doctor, "It breaks down and produces gas. Perfect home for these gas things. They can slip inside and use it as a vehicle, just like your driver and his coach."

"Stop it," Dickens shook his head. "Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?"

"Not wrong," said the Doctor gently. "There's just more to learn."

"I've always railed against the fantasies," said Dickens, looking pained, and Jenny felt her heart go out to him. Maybe he was denying what was in front of him with every fiber in his body, but he had chosen not to believe, and now his choice had been taken away from him. "Oh, I loved an illusion as much as the next man, but that's exactly what they were, illusions. The real world is something else. I dedicated myself to that. Injustices, the great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good. Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of spectres and jack-o'-lanterns. In which case, have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor? Jenny? Has it all been for nothing?"

"I think you better take this," Jenny whispered to the Doctor, then slinked out of the room, intent on finding Rose and Gwyneth. They were only a few rooms away, apparently having bonded in the short time they were together when Gwyneth wasn't trying to let her be killed.

"Hello," said Jenny, walking into the room. The two looked up at her, startled, but Rose gave her a welcoming smile.

"We were just talkin' about school and how much we hated it," said Rose as Jenny approached them.

"Hate it? I would have loved to go to school."

"You've never been to school?" asked Gwyneth in surprise, frowning.

"Oh, I was homeschooled," said Jenny quickly after receiving a sharp look from Rose. "It wasn't my idea of a fun time. I would have rather been around people."

"That explains it then," said Gwyneth, looking as though she'd just discovered a secret.

"Explains what?" asked Jenny, confused.

"Why you don't know how to act properly. Both of you, really. I mean no offense by it, it's just… women aren't supposed to talk out like that."

"Well, we're just a different batch," said Jenny with a glance at Rose.

"Even so," said Gwyneth, "I'd like to have as much courage as you two do."

"I guess it comes from being alongside boys, you have to learn how to handle them," said Jenny with a shrug. Rose smirked, "Me and my mates, we used to go down to the shop to look at boys."

"Well, I don't know much about that," said Gwyneth with a shy duck of her head.

"Gwyneth, you can tell us. I bet you've got your eye on someone."

"I suppose," Gwyneth hesitated, "there is one lad. The butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him."

"I like a nice smile," said Jenny, nodding, though she herself had never had a relationship. Okay, she may have kissed a couple guys, but that was only to save her life! Like when she was stuck in a jail cell with her father and Donna, and she kissed the soldier guarding them. It got them out, didn't it?

"Good smile," agreed Rose, "nice bum."

Gwyneth looked shocked, "Well I have never heard the like!"

"Ask him out," said Rose, "give him a cup of tea or somethin'. That's a start."

"I swear, it is the strangest thing, you two. You've got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like you're some sort of wild things." Said Gwyneth, still looking shocked.

"Maybe we are," said Rose, "maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mr. Sneed."

"Oh, now that's not fair," said Gwyneth, looking uncomfortable. "He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Rose apologetically, and Jenny nodded sadly.

"Thank you. But I'll be with them again, someday, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me. Maybe your dad is up there waiting for you too, miss," said Gwyneth, looking at Rose. Jenny looked at the two in shock.

"Maybe," said Rose, looking a bit startled, "er, who told you he was dead?"

"Must have been the Doctor," said Jenny with a frown, and Gwyneth nodded in agreement.

"My father died years back," said Rose, frowning.

"But you've been thinking about him lately more than ever," said Gwyneth. Jenny stared at her. This was really weird… and she knew weird.

"I s'pose so," said Rose slowly. "How do you know all this?"

"Mr. Sneed says I think too much," said Gwyneth with a sigh. "I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you?" she seemed to include Jenny in that sentence too.

"No," said Rose truthfully, "No servants where I'm from."

"And you've come such a long way. Both of you, and you…" she looked at Jenny, "Why, you've come from even longer away."

"What makes you think so?" said Rose quickly, and Jenny was relieved when Gwyneth returned her attention back to Rose.

"You're from London. I've seen London drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying," she turned away from Rose's shocked expression in favor of looking at Jenny again, "I don't know where you're from. A place I've never heard of before. A war, a terrible war. And… something metal hit you in the chest. You should have been killed, but look at you both, the things you've seen, the darkness, the travel… the bad wolf," she directed this at Rose. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry miss."

"It's alright," said Rose, looking shaken.

"I can't help it," Gwyneth explained, "ever since I was a little girl, my mam said that I had The Sight. She told me to hide it."

"But it's getting stronger," said a voice from behind them, and they all whipped around to see the Doctor standing there. "More powerful. Is that right?"

"All the time sir," Gwyneth admitted. "Every night, voices in my head."

"You grew up on top of the rift," the Doctor explained. "You're part of it. You're the key."

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir," said Gwyneth, looking apologetic, "consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts."

"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."

"What to do where, sir?" asked Gwyneth, looking both scared and determined at the same time, if such a thing were possible.

"We're going to have a séance," said the Doctor in a flat voice.

The three girls exchanged nervous looks, but none looked more nervous than Gwyneth did. "It's okay," said Rose, leading her out into the living room. "It'll work, trust me."

"Sit down," said the Doctor when they were in the living room, "all of you, sit down. It's time."

…

"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town. Come, we must all join hands," said Gwyneth, her voice steady despite how worried she had looked before she entered the living room.

"I can't take part in this," said Dickens quickly.

"Humbug? Come on, open mind!" said the Doctor.

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask!" said Dickens, and Jenny sighed. Apparently her father hadn't gotten to him, and nor had she. "Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Now, don't antagonize her," the Doctor admonished, "I love a happy medium."

"I can't believe you just said that," said Rose, staring at him.

"Come on," the Doctor encouraged. "We might need you."

Dickens sighed and sat down between Rose and Gwyneth.

"Good man!" said the Doctor, a lot happier then he'd been before. "Now, Gwyneth, reach out."

"Speak to us," said Gwyneth, "are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden."

Jenny felt the back of her neck hairs tingle as the sound of whispers picked up in her ear. Somehow, she knew that the séance was working.

"Can you hear that?" whispered Rose.

"Nothing can happen," Dickens assured her, "this is sheer folly."

"Look at her," Rose said, staring at Gwyneth.

"I see them," said Gwyneth, "I feel them."

Jenny gasped as gas tendrils drifted above their heads.

"What's it saying?" she asked, trying not to sound scared.

"They can't get through the rift," said the Doctor, "Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep, allow them through."

"I can't!" said Gwyneth, looking way more scared then Jenny felt.

"Yes, you can, just believe it," said the Doctor firmly, "I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link."

"Yes," Gwyneth whispered, and shadows started to appear behind her, outlined in blue.

"Great God!" exclaimed Sneed. "Spirits from the other side!"

"The other side of the universe," the Doctor said in a low voice.

Gwyneth started to speak again, but this time it wasn't only her voice, the voice of two children were speaking as well. Coming straight from her mouth.

"_Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us."_

"What do you want us to do?" asked the Doctor urgently.

"_The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge."_

"Why? What happened?" the Doctor asked in that same urgent tone.

"_Once we had a physical form, like you, but then the war came."_ Jenny shivered as memories of the war on Messaline flashed through her mind.

"War? What war?"

"_The Time War,"_ said the Gelth, _"the whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in a gaseous state."_

"_So that's why you need the corpses,"_ said the Doctor, realization lighting his features, and something like guilt.

"_We want to stand tall,"_ explained the Gelth, _"feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us."_

"But we can't!" exclaimed Rose.

"Why not?" asked the Doctor, and Jenny glared at him.

"It's not, I mean… it's not –"

"Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives."

"_Open the rift,"_ the Gelth encouraged, "_let the Gelth through! We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth!"_

The Gelth then went back into the gas lamps, leaving Gwyneth to collapse onto the table.

"Gwyneth?" asked Rose and Jenny, worried.

"All true," said Dickens in a fascinated tone.

"Are you okay?" Jenny asked him.

"It's all true," Dickens said in the same voice, eyes wide.

"I think there's more pressing matters," said Jenny, nodding at Gwyneth's limp form, spread across the table.

"Right," the Doctor got up and unlinked his hand with Jenny's (she'd been sitting in between him and Dickens), going over to Gwyneth and putting a finger to her neck. "She's got a pulse, she just needs sleep," said the Doctor, lifting her up in his arms as though it were nothing. "Let's get her to the chaise lounge."

Almost as soon as the Doctor put her down on the chaise lounge, Gwyneth woke up.

"It's alright," said Jenny, kneeling down next to her.

"You just sleep," added Rose, coming over to the two.

"But my angels," said Gwyneth quickly, "they came didn't they? They need me?"

"They do need you Gwyneth," said the Doctor, cutting across any objection Rose might have had. "You're their only chance of survival."

"I've told you," Rose snapped, "leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fightin' your battles!"

Jenny grabbed a glance of water and handed it to Gwyneth, "Drink this."

"Well, what do you say Doctor?" Sneed walked over. "Explain it again. What are they?"

"Aliens," said the Doctor.

"Like foreigners you mean?" asked Sneed in confusion, and Jenny rolled her eyes. Honestly, the things Earthlings will do to ignore supernatural beings.

"Pretty foreign, yeah," she called, then pointed up at the ceiling, "from up there."

"Brecon?" Sneed tried, and Jenny sighed.

"Close," said the Doctor with a glance over at Jenny. "And they've been trying to get through Brecon to Cardiff, but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert in the glass and hide in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl," Dickens confirmed.

"They're not havin' her. Jenny tell 'em," Rose said firmly. Jenny sighed, "she's right, Gwyneth is a girl, who knows what the rift will do to her."

"But she can help!" the Doctor protested. "Living on the rift, she became part of it. She can open up, make a bridge and let them through."

"Incredible," said Dickens. "Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from a different world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers."

"Good system," said the Doctor. "It might work."

"You can't let them run around inside dead people!" exclaimed Rose, sounding revolted.

"Why not?" challenged the Doctor. "It's like recycling."

"No, Rose is right, you can't!" said Jenny, shaking her head.

"No, Rose is wrong, I can!" said the Doctor, glaring at her.

"It's wrong though! Can't you see it? Those bodies were living people, even you lot should be able to respect them in death!" Jenny had jumped up now, glaring around at all of them.

"Do you carry a donor card?" the Doctor asked Rose, ignoring Jenny's furious face.

"That's different," said Rose heatedly, "that's –"

"It is different, yeah," said the Doctor, "It's different morality. Get used to it or go home." Jenny felt her jaw drop, how could he endanger someone like this? She tried remembering, what had her father said the first time she'd seen him? About genocide?

"There has to be a different way," said Jenny, looking at them all. "You're not usin' her!" Rose repeated.

"Don't I get a say?" asked Gwyneth, looking around at them all.

"Look, you don't understand what's going on," said Rose, and Jenny winced at the wording.

"You would say that, miss, because it's clear inside your head that you think I'm stupid."

"She doesn't think that!" Jenny exclaimed, walking back over to them. "That's not fair."

"It's true though, you do too," she added to Jenny, who frowned.

"Things might be different from where you two are," Gwyneth continued, "but here and now, I have my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?"

"You don't have to do anything," said the Doctor, looking at her.

"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me."

"We need to find the rift," said the Doctor, turning away, "this house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mr. Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house?" he asked Sneed. "The place where the most ghosts have been seen."

"That would be the morgue," replied Sneed.

"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" mumbled Rose, but nobody answered her.

…

"Urgh, talk about bleak house," complained the Doctor when they reached the cold morgue.

"The thing is, Doctor," said Rose, obviously still mad, "the Gelth don't succeed, 'cos I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking about in 1869."

"Time's a flux, changing every second," said the Doctor. "Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that," he snapped his fingers. "Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing."

"Doctor," Dickens spoke up, "I think the room is getting colder."

"Here they come," Jenny whispered as the Gelth started coming out of the gas lamps and stood under a stone archway.

"_You've come to help!"_ the Gelth exclaimed, "_Praise the Doctor. Praise him."_

Rose took a step forward. "Promise you won't hurt her."

The Gelth ignored her. _"Hurry! Please, so little time, pity the Gelth!"_

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer," the Doctor promised, "somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, alright?"

"My angels," Gwyneth whispered, eyes shining, "I can help them live!"

"Okay," said the Doctor, "where's the weak point?"

"_Here, beneath the arch,"_ said the Gelth in reply.

"Beneath the arch," Gwyneth confirmed, going to stand underneath of it, straight inside the Gelth.

"You don't have to do this," Jenny said, knowing that it was stupid to even attempt to talk her out of it now… but she had to do something. One last choice.

"My angels."

"_Establish the bridge!"_ the Gelth cried, _"reach out to the void! Let us through!"_

"Yes, I can see you!" said Gwyneth, "I can see you. Come!"

"_Bridgehead establishing,"_ said the Gelth, and Jenny could feel her two hearts pumping rapidly.

"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

"_It is begun,"_ the Gelth said_, "the bridge is made!"_

Gwyneth tilted her head back, and blue gas came out of her open mouth. _"She has given herself to the Gelth! The bridge is open! We descend!"_

The blue apparition suddenly turned flame red with sharp teeth, causing Jenny to take a step back and Rose to gasp. The Gelth spoke again, but the little kid voice was gone, replaced by a cold and deep voice. "The Gelth will come through force."

Dickens spoke up, "you said you were few in numbers!"

"A few billion," the Gelth replied. "And all of us need corpses."

The dead bodies around them all started to get up, and Jenny moved almost subconsciously closer to the Doctor.

Sneed stepped forward, "Gwyneth, stop this! Listen to your master! This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone. I beg of you –"

Rose suddenly shouted, "Mr. Sneed, get back!"

It was too late though, a corpse had grabbed Sneed and snapped his neck, if the noise was anything to go by. His body barely had time to collapse when a Gelth took control of it, zooming into his mouth.

"I think it's gone a bit wrong," said the Doctor, wide-eyed at the destruction. Sneed turned towards them, "I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us."

"No," said Dickens, shaking his head and taking a few steps back.

"We need bodies!" shouted the Gelth through Sneed's mouth. "All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."

"Gwyneth, stop them!" Jenny cried, and the Doctor added, "send them back, now!"

"Four more bodies," said Gelth Sneed. "Convert them. Make vessels for the Gelth."

Jenny screamed as Gelth Sneed made a reach for her arm, but the Doctor grabbed her hand along with Rose's and pulled her away. They were trapped, there was nowhere they could go… Gelth Sneed had them backed against a metal gate.

"Doctor," they heard Dickens call, "I'm can't! I'm sorry! This new world of yours is too much for me, I'm so—"

Jenny grabbed the Doctor and Rose by the arm and shoved them all behind the metal gate, wondering why she hadn't thought of that sooner, and closed it behind them.

"Give yourself to glory!" shouted the Gelth. "Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth!"

"I trusted you!" the Doctor shouted back, even louder, "I pitied you!"

"We don't want your pity," replied the Gelth. "We want this world and all its flesh."

"Not while we're alive," said Jenny bravely, but the Gelth seemed prepared for her answer. "Then live no more."

"But I can't die!" said a hysterical Rose. "Tell me I can't! I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die, isn't it?"

The Doctor and Jenny looked at her sadly.

"I'm sorry."

Rose stared at them, "but it's 1869. How can I die now?"

"Time isn't a straight line," explained Jenny, "it can twist into any shape. You can be born in the 20th century and die in the 19th."

"It's all my fault," said the Doctor heavily, "I brought you here, it's all my fault."

"It's not your fault," said Rose firmly. "I wanted to come."

"What about me?" asked the Doctor. "I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff."

"None of us are dying!" Jenny snapped at the two. "You can't give up hope… you can't!"

At the expression on their faces, what little hope Jenny had left, died. But there was something else, something to keep her going…

"We'll go down fighting then, yeah?"

"Yeah," said the Doctor, nodding.

"All of us?" she pressed, looking pointedly at Rose.

"All of us," she promised, then paused. "I'm glad that I met you two… you've been great."

Jenny didn't answer, but the Doctor did. "I'm glad I met you too."

They all jumped as the door burst open, and Dickens raced inside. "Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it!"

"What are you doing?" asked the Doctor in alarm.

"Turn it all on!" Dickens repeated, "Flood the place!"

The Doctor suddenly straightened, "Brilliant, gas!"

"What, so we choke to death instead?" asked Rose, apparently not liking the idea.

"Those creatures are gaseous," said Jenny, also straightening. "He's right! Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host! It'll suck them into the air!"

The corpses started to leave the trio, headed for Dickens instead. Apparently, they'd heard the plan.

"I hope, oh Lord," said Dickens, staring at them wildly, "I hope this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately."

"Plenty more!" yelled the Doctor.

The Doctor ripped a gas pipe from the wall, causing the Gelth to leave the corpses.

"It's working!" shouted Dickens.

The trio raced out of the alcove, towards where Dickens and Gwyneth were.

"Gwyneth," said the Doctor quickly. "Send them back. They lied. They're not angels."

"Liars?" asked Gwyneth, her voice odd.

"Look at me!" snapped the Doctor, "if your mother and father could see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!"

"I can't breathe!" exclaimed Rose, and Jenny pulled her to the floor, both of them coughing. Jenny could feel the gas starting to affect her, choking her airway.

"Charles, get them out," said the Doctor.

"We're not leaving her!" said Rose, coughing.

"Can't get rid of us that easily," Jenny gasped out, still trying to get air in her lungs. Of course, she'd like nothing better than to get into a room clean of gas and full of air, but she wouldn't leave them behind. She'd fight to the death for them… even if it meant fighting off gas. She shook herself, trying to fight off the black that had started dimming her vision.

"They're too strong!" said Gwyneth, her voice full of fear.

"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift."

"I can't send them back," Gwyneth replied. "But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out."

Gwyneth put a shaky hand inside her apron pocket and pulled out a box of matches.

"You can't!" Rose exclaimed.

"Leave this place!" said Gwyneth desperately. It was clear that she'd made her choice.

"Rose, Jenny, get out. Go now, I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!"

"No!" shouted Jenny, but Rose was already pulling her out of the room. "No, stop you can't! Let me go Dickens!" she yelled, pounding her fist on his back due to the fact that he'd thrown her over his shoulder to get her out of there.

"This way!" shouted Dickens, ignoring her. Almost as soon as they were outside, there was a loud BOOM, that caused Dickens to lose his grip on Jenny and for her to go tumbling to the ground.

The Doctor, on the other hand, went flying on the street. Jenny looked up in relief when she saw him, and was helped to stand on her feet by Rose.

"She didn't make it," Rose said when she didn't spot Gwyneth.

"I'm sorry. She closed the rift."

"At such a cost," sighed Dickens sadly. "The poor child."

"I did try, Rose, Jenny, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes."

"What are you saying?" asked Jenny.

"I think she was dead the minute she stood in that arch," said the Doctor regretfully.

"But she can't have," Rose argued, "she spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?"

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor."

"She saved the world," Jenny murmured. "A servant girl, and no one will ever know."

The Doctor put a hand on her shoulder. "We will."

…

Jenny wanted to leave, she wanted to leave Cardiff and never return. All she could think about were the Gelth, and Gwyneth. That's why she was rather impatient as her father made her wait outside the TARDIS with him and Rose and Dickens to 'say goodbye'.

"Right then, Charlie Boy," said the Doctor. "I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long."

"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked him.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London," he said. "Quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital."

"You've cheered me up some," said Jenny, thinking about what he said.

"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them."

"Do you think that's wise?" asked Jenny hesitantly.

"I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks and ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle, perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth."

"Good luck with it," said the Doctor sincerely. "Nice to meet you. Fantastic."

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you," said Jenny.

"Bye then… and thanks," Rose said, shaking his hand. After hesitating for a moment, she kissed his cheek.

"Oh my dear!" exclaimed Dickens, "how modern! Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"You'll see. In the shed."

"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you haven't explained. Answer me this: who are you?"

"Just a friend passing through," said the Doctor quickly.

"But you have such knowledge of future times!" said Dickens, shaking his head. "I do not wish to impose on you, but I must ask you… Doctor, my books… do they last?"

The Doctor grinned, "Oh yes!"

"For how long?" asked Dickens, looking as though he weren't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Forever," said the Doctor simply. "Right, shed. Come on Jenny, Rose."

"In the box? All three of you?" asked Dickens, wide-eyed.

"Down boy," said the Doctor with a laugh, "see you."

Once they were inside the TARDIS, Rose turned to the Doctor. "Doesn't that change history? If he writes about blue ghosts?"

"In a week's time," the Doctor said sadly, "it will be 1870, and that's the year he dies. Sorry, he'll never get to tell his story."

"Oh no," said Jenny, frowning. "He actually turned out quite nice in the end…"

"But in Rose's time, he's already dead," the Doctor pointed out. "We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive than he's ever been, old Charlie Boy. Let's give him one last surprise."

They all grinned at each other as the Doctor turned the engines on, and Jenny knew that outside the TARDIS would be disappearing. "That's one Christmas present," said Rose, laughing.

**Yay, chapter 2! I'm glad you guys liked chapter 1. It's been fun writing this, hope you liked this chapter as well. So what did you think about this one? Have you ever watched Torchwood before Doctor Who? I did, and when I saw Eve Myles as Gwyneth I squeeled. Yeah, very unflattering. **

**Please review! : ) and/or favorite/follow. **


	3. World War Three

**Today's my birthday, review for a happy birthday? : D**

**I'm Your Daughter**

Chapter 3:

Jenny bounced out of the TARDIS with Rose and the Doctor behind her. "Earth again, this is your time, yeah?" Jenny asked Rose, who nodded. "Yep, my time."

Jenny looked around for a moment, before nodding her approval. "I like it!"

"How long have I been gone?" Rose asked the Doctor, who shrugged. "About twelve hours."

"Oh, right, I won't be long, I just want to see my mum."

"What'll you tell her?" Jenny asked, "I'm guessing she doesn't know about this, judging by your phone call."

"I don't know. I've been to the year five billion and I've only been gone twelve hours? No, I'll tell her I spent the night at Shareen's. See ya later. Oh, don't you two disappear!" she called, already racing across the street to where Jenny assumed she lived.

"So… Earth…" Jenny started to pace around the unfamiliar street alley, looking at everything she could, when she suddenly spotted something familiar. She walked towards an old paper stuck to a concrete pillar. She felt her hand come up to her mouth without her permission as she spotted Rose's picture on it, her hair a bit darker blonde.

"Dad…" Jenny yelled. At her urgent tone, the Doctor strolled over to where she was. "Not good," said the Doctor, when he finished reading the missing poster of Rose Tyler. "Definitely not good."

Without another word, he raced at breakneck speed towards where Rose had disappeared. It didn't take long for Jenny to catch up, although she would have preferred it if he told her why he was running in the first place.

Before Jenny could protest, the Doctor barged into a slightly ajar room.

"It's not twelve hours!" he exclaimed, "it's twelve months. You've been gone for a whole year. Sorry."

Judging by the looks on the faces of everyone in the room, they had already established this. "Um, I think they realized that," she murmured to her father.

Jenny tilted her head as a blonde woman who'd been hugging Rose (she assumed she was Rose's mother) went to grab something on a mantelpiece. It looked like it might have been a communicating device, but it was too large to be a cell phone. Jenny waited, feeling awkward, as Rose's mum called the police (whoever they were). Another species maybe?

It turned out that the police was just a man dressed up in a funny outfit, who apparently worked with things such as missing cases for a job.

"The hours I've sat here!" the woman ranted. "Days and weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you were dead! And where were you? Travelling! What the hell does that mean, travelling?! That's no sort of answer! You ask her," she yelled, turning to the policeman. "She won't tell me. That's all she says, travelling!"

"That's what I was doing," said Rose, sounding frustrated and sitting on a couch.

"When your passport's still in the drawer? It's just one lie after another!"

"I meant to phone, I really did! I just… forgot."

"What for a year?" yelled Rose's mum. "Forgot for a whole year!? And I'm left sitting here. I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

"Actually, that's my fault," the Doctor cut in, and Jenny had to resist the urge to slap him. "I sort of er, employed Rose as my companion."

The policeman looked up at the Doctor, "when you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?"

"No," said the Doctor and Rose simultaneously.

"Then what is it!? Because you, you waltz in here all charms and smiles, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off of the face of the Earth! How old are you then? Forty? Forty five? I mean do you collect young girls or what? Look at this sweetheart here," she nodded to Jenny, "What, did you find them on the internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a Doctor?"

"I am a Doctor!" Jenny's father exclaimed.

"Prove it. Stitch this mate!" Jenny's mouth fell open as the woman slapped her father. Rose just stared straight ahead.

"Oi, that's my father!" Jenny exclaimed, looking between the two. Rose's mum ignored her. Obviously, she thought the Doctor had paid Jenny to say that, or something of the sort.

* * *

"I can't tell her," said Rose. They were all on the rooftop, staring up at the sky. "I can't even begin. She's never going to forgive me. And I missed a year. Was it good?"

"Middling," said the Doctor with a shrug.

"You're so useless," said Rose, shaking her head.

"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you going to stay here now?"

"I don't know," Rose said, much to Jenny's shock. "I can't do that to her again though."

"Well she's not coming with us," said the Doctor firmly, before Jenny could open her mouth to beg Rose to stay with them.

"No chance," said Rose, looking close to laughter.

"I don't do families… um… Jenny's case is different," he added at the disbelieving glare Jenny sent him.

"She slapped you!"

"Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by anyone's mother."

"Your face!" Rose and Jenny both started laughing.

"It hurt!" the Doctor defended himself.

"You're so gay," said Rose, rolling her eyes. "When you say nine hundred years…?"

"My age."

"You're nine hundred years old," Rose deadpanned.

"Yeah."

"My mum was right. That's one hell of an age gap. Every conversation with you goes mental. I can only talk to one other person, and she'll be sitting right there next to you up in that box of yours. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows they exist."

Almost as soon as the words left her lips, there was a tremendously loud sound, like a horn, followed smoothly by a spaceship, which trailed black smoke as it passed them over the rooftop, headed for the city. All three of them watched as it tore apart Big Ben before crashing straight into the River.

"Oh that's just not fair," Rose whined, but the Doctor and Jenny were grinning.

* * *

The army was something that Jenny could understand, but it still annoyed her that they had the roads blocked off.

"Just my luck!" complained one man loudly.

"Get back. Get back," said the soldiers, pushing back people trying to look past them.

"It's blocked off," said the Doctor in frustration.

"We're miles from the centre. The city must be grid locked. The whole of London must be closing down."

"I know, I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic!

"Did you know this was going to happen?" Jenny asked her father.

"Nope."

"Do either of you recognize the ship?" Rose asked them.

"Nope," they answered simultaneously.

"Do you know why it crashed?"

"Nope."

"Haven't a clue."

"Oh, well, I'm so glad I've got you two," said Rose sarcastically.

"I bet you are," said Jenny with a grin, while the Doctor went on one of his this-is-amazing rants. "This is what I travel for Rose, Jenny. To see history happening right in front of us."

"Well, let's go and see it then," said Rose, "nevermind the traffic, we've got the TARDIS."

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Jenny. The Doctor nodded, "they've already got one spaceship in the middle of London. I don't want to shove another one on top."

"Yeah, but yours looks like a big blue box," argued Rose. "No one's going to notice."

"You'd be surprised. Emergency like this, there'll be all kinds of people watching. Trust me. The TARDIS stays where it is."

"So, history's happening and we're stuck here," Jenny frowned.

"We could always do what everybody else does," said Rose, and father and daughter turned to look at her in confusion. "Watch it on TV."

* * *

"Amazing," breathed Jenny, "I thought these things were just for coming up with battle plans!"

"Shh," the Doctor said, obviously trying to listen.

"Why would you think that?" asked Jackie, but the Doctor shushed them again.

"_The military are on the lookout for more spaceships. Until then, all flights in North American air space have been grounded."_

"_The army are sending drivers into the wreck of the spaceship. No one knows what they are going to find." _

"_The president will address the nation live from the White House, but the Secretary General has asked that people watch the skies." _

Jackie came over to them with two tea cups, handing one to Rose and her friend Ru, but leaving Jenny and the Doctor without.

"I've got no choice," Jackie said at the look on her daughter's face.

"You've broken your mother's heart," Ru informed Rose.

"I'm not going to make him welcome, and if she's siding with him, then I don't want to make her welcome either." Jackie threw a nasty look at Jenny as she said this, who frowned at her.

"Oi! I'm trying to listen!" said the Doctor loudly, and they all quieted, Jenny feeling a bit hurt. Was it so bad that she stuck up for her father?

"_They found a body. It's unconfirmed." _

"_But I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage, a body on non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore."_

* * *

More and more people turned up in the Tyler flat as a sort of 'welcome home' to Rose, who didn't seem very thrilled with the idea.

"Oh, guess who asked me out," said Jackie suddenly. "Billy Crewe."

Jenny tried to concentrate on the TV screen, but the channel suddenly changed.

"_And when you've stuck your fins on, you can cover the whole lot in buttercream."_ Jenny glanced over at her father, who had a toddler in his lap and was wrestling for the remote.

"_Oh, look at that! Then ice it any color you want, here's one I made a bit earlier. And look at that, you're very own spaceship ready to eat-"_ Jenny tilted her head. Eat a spaceship? It did look rather tasty. _"-and for something a little extra special –"_ the channel was changed again back onto the news station (that's what Rose had called it).

"_-Albion Hospital. We still don't know if it's dead or alive. Whitehall is denying everything."_

"_But the body has been brought here, Albion Hospital. The road's closed off. It's the closest to the river."_

"Go on," the Doctor urged the screen, and Jenny gave him an odd look.

"_I'm being told that General Asquith is now entering the hospital. The building's been evacuated. The patients have been moved out onto the streets. The police still won't confirm the presence of an alien body contained inside those walls."_

"_Mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of the Prime Minister. He's not been seen since the emergency began. The opposition are criticizing his lack of leadership, and. Hold on."_

As they watched, a vehicle pulled up in front of the hospital, and a heavyset man got out of it. _Messaline would never allow someone that thick to breed, _thought Jenny in disgust.

"_Oh, that's Joseph Green. MP for Hartley Dale. He's chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the monitoring of sugar standards in exported confectionary. With respect, hardly the most important person right now."_

The Doctor suddenly got up and left the flat, Jenny shooting up and racing after him.

"And where do you think you two are going?" Rose asked, peeking her head out of the flat.

"Nowhere, it's just a bit human in there for us. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. We're off on a wander, that's all."

Jenny wondered how he knew that she had wanted to come with him too, that she had the same feeling. Either he had just assumed, wanted her to come with him, or sensed it somehow. Or maybe all three.

"Right. There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just wandering," said Rose, a knowing look on her face.

"Nothing to do with us," said the Doctor with a shrug. "It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, color of smoke, everything. It's perfect."

"So?"

"So maybe this is it," said the Doctor. "First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race officially grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay," Jenny raised an eyebrow at his odd choice of words. "Now you can expand. You don't need us," said the Doctor when it didn't look like Rose was about to go back in her flat. "Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum."

"Promise you two won't disappear?" Rose called after them.

"Tell you what," said the Doctor, pulling out a key and throwing it at Rose. "TARDIS key. About time you had one. See you later!"

"Why don't I get a TARDIS key?" asked Jenny, offended, when they were out of earshot. The Doctor flashed her a grin. "You're my daughter."

"So?" Jenny demanded.

"So, I'm not letting you take her out on any test drives. Cramp my style."

Jenny let out a disbelieving laugh, "Oh come on! You don't trust me?"

"Maybe. Just a little," said the Doctor with another shrug. "I only have two keys. I'll get the TARDIS to make another set for you, how's that?"

"Better," Jenny said eventually with a sigh as they entered the TARDIS. "Do I get it now?"

The Doctor laughed. "Not a chance!"

* * *

"Where are we?" Jenny whispered, looking around. They appeared to be in some sort of store room. The Doctor didn't answer, he just pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the keyhole. "Shush!" he whispered to both Jenny and the sonic screwdriver. Jenny rolled her eyes.

With a click the door came unlocked and opened. The Doctor shot a grin back at Jenny before gently walking out of the door, Jenny right behind him.

The two walked straight into a room filled with men in red berets – the Parachute Regiment. They stared at each other in silence for a moment, then the soldiers grabbed their weapons and pointed them at the Doctor and his daughter, who both put their hands up. There was a sudden scream that everybody in the room heard.

"Defense plan delta, come on! Move! Move!"

Jenny stared after him in complete disbelief as he led the marines out of the room. She caught up to him, "Not a soldier, eh?"

"What?" asked the Doctor distractedly, and Jenny realized they haven't had that argument yet. "Never mind," she said quickly.

The two raced towards the scream quicker than the marines, where they spotted a young Japanese woman in a lab coat on the ground against the wall, looking terrified. There was a long red cut on her head.

"It's alive!" she exclaimed at the sight of the Doctor.

"Spread out. Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown."

"My God, it's alive!" the woman repeated, eyes wide. Jenny rounded on the marines when they didn't do what her father asked straight away. "Are you deaf? You heard the man! Move it soldier!"

The man hesitated before nodding and racing out of the room along with his comrades. Jenny turned back to the Doctor and the woman.

"I swear it was dead."

"Coma, shock, hibernation," the Doctor listed, "it could have been anything. What does it look like?"

There was the sound of metal clattering, and not for the first time, Jenny wished she had a gun on her. Maybe if she asked one of the marine men _really _nicely…

"I think we're about to find out," Jenny muttered. The Doctor gestured towards Jenny to take his place next to the woman. He himself went to check out the noise and let out a friendly greeting: "Hello!"

Jenny watched in shock as a pig ran out on its hind legs, wearing a space suit.

"Don't shoot!" the Doctor yelled as it passed some soldiers in the hall.

Jenny and the Doctor chased after it, but it turned a corner and they lost sight. A moment later there was the unmistakable sound of a gunshot.

"What did you do that for?" Jenny demanded when she saw the dead pig and the soldier holding the gun.

"It was scared!" the Doctor yelled at them, and the soldiers looked slightly guilty. "It was scared."

* * *

"I just assumed that's what aliens looked like," said the woman, who had introduced herself as Toshiko Sato. "But you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth."

"More like a mermaid," said the Doctor, and Jenny pricked her ears at the new word. She'd never heard of a mermaid before. "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid," Jenny grimaced. That did not sound very pleasant.

"Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified," Jenny felt her hearts drop as she thought of the poor little pig, and how it must have felt. "They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."

"So it's a fake, a pretend," said Toshiko. "Like the mermaid. But the technology augmenting its brain, it's like nothing on Earth. It's alien."

Jenny barely saw her father leave, Toshiko was still talking, in her own little world. Jenny raced after her father, "Aliens are faking aliens. Why would they do that?" Jenny asked.

Her father didn't answer, he just quickened his pace until they reached the store room again. "In," he said, and his tone made Jenny automatically obey him.

"Where are we?" Jenny asked hesitantly. He seemed to be in a better mood then before, but she didn't want to tempt fate. "Back at Rose's."

* * *

"Alright, so we lied," the Doctor said as soon as landed the TARDIS, Jenny cleared her throat loudly, and the Doctor reiterated his sentence: "Alright, so I lied." Jenny nodded, that sounded a lot better. "I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought, lets go and have a look!"

"My mum's here," Rose said quietly, and the Doctor and Jenny whipped around to see her standing there, staring at them all.

"Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic."

A dark-skinned man stepped forward. "You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."

"You see what I mean? Domestic."

"I bet you don't even know my name," the man said. Jenny sure didn't.

"Rickey," said the Doctor.

"It's Mickey," the man – Mickey – corrected angrily.

"No," her father disagreed, and Jenny almost rolled her eyes. Only the Doctor would tell someone that they didn't know their own name. "It's Rickey."

"I think I know my own name," said Mickey angrily.

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?" asked the Doctor, and Jenny slapped his arm.

"Mum don't!" said Rose as her mother ran out. "Don't go anywhere," she turned towards Jenny, "don't let them start a fight."

Then she left. She left Jenny with two furious men. How rude.

"Alright, listen, we can settle this in other ways –"

"Yeah and who's this chick? You ditchin' Rose in favor of another young blonde girl?"

"That 'chick' is my daughter," started the Doctor furiously, and Mickey backtracked. Jenny wasn't sure if he was about to continue or not, because Rose came back in that minute.

"That was a real spaceship," she said when she reached them, either not noticing or ignoring how tense the boys were around each other.

"Yep."

"So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"

"Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert." Mickey muttered.

"Good point!" said the Doctor, surprising everybody. "So, what're they up to?"

When nobody came up with an answer, the Doctor sighed and went back underneath the control panel of the TARDIS. Apparently his mind worked better when he was fixing up the TARDIS or something.

"So, what're you doing down there?" Mickey asked.

"Rickey."

"Mickey."

"Ricky. If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand it?"

"I suppose not," said Mickey.

"Well, shut it then."

"Dad!" Jenny exclaimed, shooting Mickey an apologetic look. Rose walked over to them, "He's winding you up. I am sorry."

"Okay," said Mickey.

"I am though."

"Every day, I looked," said Mickey, and Jenny had the feeling she was intruding on a private moment. "On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year."

"It's only been a few days for me," Rose explained, "I don't know. It's… it's hard to tell inside this thing but I swear it's just been a few days since I left you."

Mickey was looking very downcast all of the sudden. "Not enough time to miss me, then?"

"I did miss you."

"I missed you."

Jenny had the feeling that if she weren't standing there, there would have been a huge kiss coming on.

"So, er," started Rose awkwardly, "in twelve months… have you been seeing someone else?" Was that just Jenny or was there a hopeful tone to her voice?

"No," said Mickey quickly and firmly.

"Okay."

Mickey instantly ruined his loyal effect by adding: "Mainly because everyone thinks I murdered you."

"Right…"

"So, now that you've come back… are you going to stay?"

Jenny wasn't looking at them, but she was listening hard, and apparently her father was too, because at that precise moment he chose to cut in. "Got it! Ha ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go, hold on… come on…"

They all looked at the trajectory on the monitor. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See? The spaceship did a slingshot 'round the Earth before it landed."

"But…" Jenny started in confusion. "That would mean it was already on the Earth to begin with. It went up and came back down," the Doctor was nodding, a grin on his face. "So whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived. They've been here for a while now."

"Good girl!" the Doctor said and pat Jenny's hair, who automatically ducked away. "The question is: what have they been doing?"

* * *

Jenny was sitting back while Rose and Mickey flipped through the channels on the scanner.

"How many channels do you get on that thing?" Mickey asked the Doctor.

"All the basic packages."

"You get sports channels?"

"Yes, I get the football… hold on. I know that lot."

"_It is looking likely that the government's bringing in alien specialists – those people who have devoted their lives to studying outerspace."_

"UNIT. United Nations Intelligent Taskforce. Good people."

"How do you know them?" asked Jenny.

"'Cos he's worked for them," said Mickey, "Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside waiting for twelve months, Doctor. I've read up on you. You look deep enough on the internet or in the history books there's his name, followed by a list of dead people."

"That's nice, good boy Rickey."

"If you know them," Rose cut in, "Why don't you go and help?"

"They wouldn't recognize me. I've changed a lot since the old days," Jenny and Rose exchanged a glance, and she knew they were both wondering the same thing: had the Doctor regenerated since then? "Besides, the world's on knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover. And, er, I'd like to keep the TARDIS out of sight. Rickey, you've got a car, you can do some driving."

"Where to?" asked Mickey.

"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

They all walked out of the TARDIS, only to be bombarded by bright lights and the sound of helicopters. "Do not move!" shouted a policeman, "step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads!"

There were police cars and Saxon armored personnel carriers surrounding them. Mickey darted away faster than Jenny could blink.

Jackie came running out of her flat. "Rose!" she shouted, only to be grabbed by soldiers. "Rose!"

"Place your hands above your head. You are under arrest."

"Take me to your leader," said the Doctor with a grin on his face.

They grabbed the three of them (rather roughly in Jenny's opinion) and shoved them into the back of a police car. She could have taken half of them out easily, but even Jenny could tell when a fight was already lost, and it was hopeless without any defense or weapons.

"This is a bit posh," said Rose, "If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago."

"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted."

"Where to?" asked Jenny.

"Where'd you think? Downing Street."

"You're kidding," said Rose, a grin on her face.

Jenny wasn't sure if she should ask what Downing Street was or not.

"I'm not!"

"10 Downing Street?"

"That's the one."

"Oh, my God. I'm going to Downing Street? How come?"

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right. Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed."

"Now they need you?" asked Jenny.

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

"Patrick Moore?" suggested Rose with a grin.

"Apart from him," said the Doctor, as though Patrick Moore was the obvious first choice.

"Oh don't you just love it."

"I'm telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table. Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should I know?" asked Rose. "I missed a year."

* * *

Pulling the trio out of the police car was difficult. Not because of the mentioned trio, but because of the people all around the car trying to get pictures (which her father was enjoying too much for his own good). They were guided into what Jenny guessed was 10 Downing Street. She still didn't see the big deal about it, but maybe that was just her. Yeah, it was pretty magnificent, but what was its purpose?

"Right, you lot wait in there," said the police officer, pushing them into the waiting room. Another woman entered the room, looking perfectly at ease. She walked straight up to an armed police officer and held an ID in front of his face. "Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North."

She mingled in well enough, but something about her struck Jenny as odd. Maybe it had to do with the military training, maybe it didn't, but there was something that made her stick out more than the other (frankly more important) people in the room.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" shouted a man, "can we convene? Quick as we can please. It's this way or on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times."He handed an ID card to the Doctor as he passed by, but stopped when he spotted Jenny and Rose. "Here's your ID card sir, but sorry, your companions don't have clearance."

"I don't go anywhere without them," said the Doctor loyally.

"You're the code nine, not them. I'm sorry Doctor, it's the Doctor right? They'll have to stay outside."

"They're staying with me," said the Doctor more firmly.

"Look," the man looked around awkwardly, "even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let them in and that's a fact."

"It's alright," said Rose, putting her hand on the Doctor's arm. "You go, we'll be okay out here."

Jenny spotted Harriet Jones rushing towards them. "Excuse me," said Harriet, "are you the Doctor?"

"Sure am."

"Not now, we're busy. Can't you go home?" the man snapped at Harriet.

"I just need a word in private," said Harriet.

"I suppose so, don't get into any trouble," said the Doctor to Rose, before leaving them to deal with Harriet. Jenny wasn't even sure he noticed her at all beside telling her his…er…name.

"You haven't got clearance," said the man to Harriet. "Now leave it."

He turned back to Rose and Jenny, "I'm going to have to leave you two with security."

"It's alright," Harriet cut in. "I'll look after them. Let me be of some use," she grabbed Jenny and Rose by the arms, walking them towards the Entrance Hall. "Walk with me. Just keep walking…" she murmured to them. "That's right, don't look around," she said as soon as they reached the Entrance Hall, moving them to an empty room. "Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North."

"Yes, I know who you are," said Jenny. "I heard you before, talking to that man."

"This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right? He knows about aliens?" she was looking very shaken, something Rose and Jenny picked up on straight away.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Rose gently.

Harriet looked about ready to answer, then started to cry. Jenny and Rose exchanged a startled glance, before Jenny put a hand on her shoulder and Rose took hold of her arm comfortingly, as Harriet started telling her story.

* * *

"They turned the body into a suit," Harriet said through tears, showing them the room where it happened. "A disguise for the thing inside!"

"It's alright, we believe you," said Jenny.

"It's… it's alien," said Rose, still sounding uncertain with the word even though she was travelling with two aliens herself. "They must have some serious technology behind this."

"If we could find it, we could use it!" Jenny said suddenly.

Rose started to look around while Jenny kept a comforting hand on Harriet's shoulder. They all jumped back in surprise as Rose opened a closet and a man's body fell out.

"Oh my God!" Rose gasped, "Is that the –"

"Harriet," a new, irritated voice spoke up. "For God's sake! This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander. Oh my God… that's the Prime Minister!"

They all whipped around as a fourth voice entered the room. "Oh! Has someone been naughty?"

"That's impossible," said the man, staring down at the body, seeming to not have heard the voice. "He left this afternoon! The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!"

"And who told you that, hmm? Me." The woman raised a hand to her hairline and… start to… unzip… no, that wasn't possible! She had zipped part of her head off, and her body was being squeezed onto the floor, like when Jenny would try wriggling out of a dress. A horrible creature appeared, pushing the meat-suit completely off of her.

The alien was nearly eight feet tall with large black eyes. Before they could do or say anything, the female alien grabbed the man with her massive talons and pinned him against the wall. A sudden spasm went through the female alien, and she let out a horrible screech before dropping the man to the ground. He didn't get back up.

Harriet, Rose and Jenny took this as their queue to escape the room. They all skidded to a halt as Harriet put out her arms as they ran out. "No, wait, they're still in there! The emergency protocols. We need them."

"We need to run first!" exclaimed Jenny as the female alien chased after them through a series of rooms, smashing down the oak doors.

They were trapped. Jenny was looking all around for a way out, but of course the only one she saw she wouldn't be able to get to without the alien catching up to her. This was the end, she knew it. Oh she should never have started traveling with her father, she'd never been in danger like this before! Okay, that was a lie, she had, but not this often! Okay maybe…still, this stuff never happened to her on a daily basis before!

There was a ding, and they all turned to see the Doctor standing in a lift. He looked at the alien, and grinned. "Hello!"

While the alien was distracted, Rose, Jenny and Harriet all raced past it and out of the room, only to head straight into another closed off room.

"Hide!" Jenny exclaimed, and the three of them dove for cover. Jenny wasn't sure where Harriet and Rose were, but she herself hid behind one of the curtains. Her two hearts were thumping wildly, and sweat was pouring down her arms.

"Oh such fun! Little human children, where are you?" Jenny frowned, she wasn't a human! She was so much more! Oh that wasn't very nice…

"Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better, kiss you with my big, green lips."

Jenny almost screamed when Rose darted behind the same curtain as her, but Rose smacked her hand against her lips, eyes huge. She hadn't realized that Jenny had been hiding behind the curtain as well, which was good… that meant it was hard to see them…

There were loud footsteps. Jenny peaked her head around the curtain just in time to see two more of the huge aliens appear. She quickly snapped her head back in the curtains and closed her eyes. This was getting worse and worse.

"My brothers!" the female alien greeted.

"Happy Hunting?" asked one of them.

"It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink!"

"Sweat and fear," snarled another.

"I can smell an old girl. Stale bird and brittle bones." The first male said in a pleased tone.

"And a couple of ripe youngsters, all hormones and adrenaline. Fresh enough for them to bend before they snap…"

The female alien pulled back the curtain, and Jenny and Rose screamed loudly.

"No!" Harriet yelled, coming out from her hiding place. "Take me first! Take me!"

Before Jenny could yell a protest, her father burst into the room with a fire extinguisher. He sprayed the one male alien with whatever was inside of it.

"Out, with me!" the Doctor yelled at the three women, who didn't waste time in obeying. Jenny pulled the curtain down over the female alien for extra measure before running after her father.

"Who the hell are you?" the Doctor asked Harriet.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

"Nice to meet you," said her father pleasantly, as though they weren't running for their lives.

"Likewise," replied Harriet in the same tone.

Once her father ran out of whatever was inside the fire extinguisher, he threw it aside, and they all raced out into the corridor.

"We need to head to the Cabinet Room," said the Doctor, looking around.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens." Harriet agreed.

"Harriet Jones, I like you," said her father with a grin.

"And I like you too," said Harriet.

There was no more time to talk though, because the aliens started chasing them again through the corridors and rooms. Jenny wasn't even sure where she was running to now, it was all happening so fast.

The Doctor stopped and grabbed her hand before she could run past him. "Wrong way!" he exclaimed, pulling her inside the Cabinet Room.

The Doctor then went and grabbed a decanter from a side table and stood in the doorway as the aliens approached them.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off."

The aliens took a step back into the outer office and away from the trio.

"Right then," said the Doctor, apparently pleased now that he had the upper hand. "Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

_The what? _

"They're aliens," said Harriet blankly.

"Yes, I got that, thanks," said the Doctor sarcastically. If Jenny weren't so scared for their lives, she might have admonished him.

"Who are you, if not human?" asked one of the male Slitheen.

"Who's not human?" asked Harriet.

"They're not human," answered Rose, pointing at the Doctor and Jenny.

"They're not human?" Harriet repeated.

"Can I have a bit of a hush?" the Doctor growled at them.

"Sorry," apologized Harriet.

"So, what's the plan?" asked the Doctor.

"But he's got a Northern accent!" Harriet exclaimed.

"Yeah, and I've got a London accent," said Jenny with a shrug.

"I said hush!" the Doctor scolded them. "Come on, you've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of the government. What for, invasion?"

"Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?" asked one of the Slitheen in disgust.

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

"Slitheen race?" echoed one of the Slitheen, blinking its huge eye. The sound it made had Jenny thinking of the cocking of a gun.

"Slitheen is not our species," said the… other… Slitheen. "Slitheen is our surename. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

"So, you're family?" the Doctor confirmed.

"A family business," replied Jocrassa.

"Then you're out to make a profit," cut in Jenny. "How can you do that on a 'God-forsaken rock'?"

The Slitheen looked a little awkward at this, and Jenny knew she'd hit a sore spot. They all froze though, at the female Slitheen's words. "Ah? Excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

"Is that what I said?"

"You're making it up," another one accused.

"Ah, well! Nice try. Harriet, have a drink, I think you're going to need it."

He held the bottle to her, but she was already carrying something. "You pass it to the left first."

"Sorry."

"Thanks," said Rose as she received the drink.

"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter," said one of the Slitheen greedily.

"Don't you think we should run?" asked Rose nervously.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street," started the Doctor, and Jenny raised an eyebrow. How exactly would a history lesson help them?

"Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet is in session and in danger, these are about the four safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson."

The Doctor lifted a small panel by the door that Jenny hadn't spotted before now and pressed a button. Metal shutters crashed shut across the windows and doors.

"Installed in 1991," said the Doctor proudly. "Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

"And how do we get out?" asked Jenny.

The Doctor stared at her, the grin slipping off his face. "Ah…"

There was a long silence, in which the Doctor dragged the body of the man who'd been struck down at the hand of the female Slitheen into a small store room, along with the other body that Rose had accidentally discovered.

"What was his name?" asked the Doctor.

"Who?" asked Harriet.

"This one. The secretary or whatever he was called."

"I don't know. I talked to him. I bought him a coffee cup. I never asked his name…"

"Sorry. Right, what have we got? Any terminals? Anything?"

Jenny stared at him in surprise, a look that he caught. "What?"

"I just… you're so different when it comes to… being a soldier," she said, staring at him. "A lot more lax then… never mind, it doesn't matter."

"…Oh-kay. So, I repeat, any terminals?"

"No. This place is antique," said Rose, "what I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He's too slim. They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans," explained the Doctor.

"But the Slitheen are about eight feet! How do they fit in?"

"That's the device around their necks," said the Doctor. "Compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field," said Rose with a sigh. "I could fit a size smaller."

"Excuse me, people are dead!" exclaimed Harriet. "this is not the time to be making jokes!"

"Sorry, you get used to this stuff when you're friends with those two."

"Oi, I didn't have anything to do with that part!" said Jenny, holding her hands up innocently.

"Well, that's a strange friendship…" commented Harriet.

"Harriet Jones, I've heard that name before," said the Doctor suddenly. "Harriet Jones… you're not famous for anything, are you?"

"Oh, hardly," said Harriet, looking as though the very idea was barbaric.

"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones?"

"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The protocols are redundant. They list people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Hold on," said Jenny, "does it have defense codes or anything? Is there any way we could… you know… launch a bomb at them or something?"

Harriet looked at her in surprise. "You're a very violent young woman."

Jenny shrugged, "I was born that way. I'm serious though, would it work? Do you have that?"

"Well, there's no bombs in there," said Harriet, "Nuclear strikes need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

"Say that again," said the Doctor.

"What, about the codes?" asked Harriet.

"Anything. All of it."

"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

"Like that's ever stopped them," scoffed Rose.

"Exactly, given our past record," agreed Harriet. "And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important at this point," answered Jenny for the Doctor.

"If only we knew what the Slitheen wanted. Listen to me, I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal."

"What do they want, though?" asked Rose.

"Well, it's just one family, so it's not an invasion," said the Doctor. "They don't want Slitheen World they're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what?" asked Harriet. "Gold, oil, water?"

"You're very good at this," complimented the Doctor.

"Thank you."

"Harriet Jones," Jenny could tell this would be bugging him for a while. "Why do I know that name?"

There was a sudden beep that made Jenny jump, and automatically reach for the weapon that she unfortunately didn't have.

"Oh, that's me." Apologized Rose.

"But we're sealed off," said Harriet in confusion, "how did you get a signal?"

"He zapped it," said Rose, nodding at the Doctor. "Super phone."

"Then we can phone for help," said Harriet hopefully, "you must have contacts."

"Dead downstairs, yeah," answered Jenny.

"It's Mickey," Rose said, and the Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy."

Rose stared at the phone, "Yeah, he's not so stupid after all."

They all looked over to see the picture of a Slitheen on her phone. "How'd it get there?" asked Jenny in confusion. "A text message. He sent me a picture text," said Rose distractedly.

"_We just saw an alien,"_ spoke Mickey's voice as soon as Rose called him.

"An alien? Like a foreigner alien?" asked Jenny hopefully, not wanting Rose's family to be in danger.

"_No, no, no, no, no. Not just an alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"_

"_I could have died!"_ came Jackie's voice.

"Is she alright though? Don't put her on, just tell me." Rose said quickly.

The Doctor snatched the phone from Rose's hand. "Is that Rickey? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"_It's Mickey, and why should I?"_

"Mickey the idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but er, I need you."

"…_what do you need me to do?"_

* * *

Jenny was sitting in one of the chairs, watching the cell phone in her dad's hand with wide eyes. Her dad had Mickey hacking into the UNIT website.

"_It says password,"_ said Mickey.

"Say again."

"_It's just asking for a password." _

"Buffalo. Two F's, one L."

"_So what's that website?"_ Jackie asked.

"_All the secret information known to mankind. See, they've known about aliens for years, they just kept us in the dark." _

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Mickey, you were born in the dark."

"Oh leave him alone, dad!" said Jenny.

"_Thank you,"_ said Mickey, before continuing. _"Password again."_

"Just repeat it every time. Big Ben…" the Doctor trailed off. "Why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them," Harriet reminded him.

"That lot would have gathered for a weather balloon, you don't need to crash land in the middle of London."

"The Slitheen are hiding," said Rose, "but then they put the entire planet on Red alert. What would they do that for?"

"_Oh listen to her,"_ they heard Jackie again.

"Well at least I'm tryin'!" Rose yelled.

"_Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind. Since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets, I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappears off the face of the Earth." _

"I told you what happened," Rose deadpanned.

"_I'm talking to him,"_ everyone in the room knew who 'him' was. _"'Cos I've seen this life of yours Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe?" _

"I'm fine," complained Rose.

"_Is she safe?"_ Jackie repeated, ignoring her daughter. _"Will she always be safe?"_ Jenny looked down at the desk. _"Can you promise me that?"_

Jenny dared a glance up at her father, who hadn't spoken, and was staring at the phone. She knew his answer, and he knew his answer, which was why he refused to say it out loud.

"_Well, what's the answer?"_ Jackie demanded, but Mickey spoke up. _"We're in."_

"Now then," the Doctor said, a lot more animated. "On the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

A loud whistling noise came from the phone on Mickey's end.

"_What is it?"_ asked Mickey.

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying."

"_He'll have to answer me one day,"_ said Jackie's stubborn voice, but Mickey shushed her.

"It's some sort of message," the Doctor said after a minute.

"What's it say?" asked Rose.

"Don't know, it's on a loop. Keeps repeating."

There was the sound of a doorbell ringing from Mickey's end of the phone, causing the Doctor to snap again. "Hush!"

"_That's not me," _said Mickey's offended voice. "_Go and see who that is."_

"_It's three o'clock in the morning!" _Jackie exclaimed.

"_Well, go and tell them that!" _

Jenny had to hold in a snort at that. He might not have gotten along with her dad, but she had to admit Mickey could be funny at times.

"It's beaming out into space," said the Doctor in a frustrated tone. "Who's it for?"

"_All right!"_

There was silence for a moment, and then a loud crash that caught all of their attention. _"It's them!" _Jackie cried. "_It's the Slipeen!"_

"_They've found us," _said Mickey urgently.

"Mickey, I need that signal!"

"Never mind the signal!" Rose yelled. "Get out! Mum! Just get out! Get out!"

"_We can't, it's by the front door. Oh my God, it's unmasking, it's gonna kill us!"_

"There's got to be some way of stopping them!" Harriet exclaimed. "You're supposed to be the expert, think of something!"

"I'm trying!"

"_I'll take it on, you run Jackie. Don't look back. Just run."_

Jenny clenched her fists on the table, hoping with all her might she wasn't about to hear someone dying. The sound of the Time Lords voices captured in those boxes still gave her nightmares… on the rare occasion that she was able to sleep, and that was only a couple hours.

There was the unmistakable sound of a door being torn down, and Jenny looked at her dad hopelessly.

"That's my mother," said Rose quietly.

"Right," said the Doctor, and Jenny straightened. "If we are going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green," said Rose.

The Doctor nodded, "Yep, narrows it down."

"They have a good sense of smell, they could smell adrenaline," Jenny added.

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology," said Harriet.

"Narrows it down."

"The spaceship in Thames, you said a slipstream engine."

"Narrows it down."

"_It's getting in!" _Mickey yelled.

"They hunt like it's a ritual," offered Jenny.

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute, did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er –"

"Bad breath!" Rose exclaimed.

"That's it!" Harriet agreed, glad someone else noticed it probably.

"Calcium decay!" the Doctor yelled, "Now that narrows it down!"

"We're getting there, mum!" Rose said excitedly.

"_Too late!" _Mickey yelled.

"Calcium phosphate," said the Doctor, pacing. "Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made of living calcium –" Jenny wondered if he ever stopped thinking "-What else? What else? Hyphenated surname… yes! That narrows it down to one planet."

Jenny suddenly yelled out, wondering how she hadn't recognized it sooner. The whole thing was right in front of her, she was getting rusty. "Raxacoricofallapatorious!"

"Excellent work, Jenny!"

"Oh yeah, great," came Mickey's sarcastic voice. "We could write them a letter."

The Doctor stopped his pacing and raced back towards the table at the sound of a door breaking down completely. "Get into the kitchen!"

There was a moment in which all they could hear was heavy breathing and the sound of something being moved, then Jackie exclaimed: _"My God, it's going to rip us apart!"_

"Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetric acid. Vinegar!"

_Vine-what? _thought Jenny.

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet exclaimed.

"Just like Hannibal," repeated the Doctor. "Mickey have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?" Mickey demanded.

"It's your kitchen!" the Doctor yelled.

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf," Rose cut in helpfully.

"_Oh give it here!" _yelled Jackie. _"What do you need?"_

"Anything with vinegar!"

"_Gerhkins," _Jackie mumbled, "_Pickled onions, pickled eggs…"_

"And you kiss this man?" the Doctor asked Rose in disbelief, who ignored him.

There was a yell, the sound of liquid being thrown, and then a loud, splattering explosion. Jenny almost laughed – that was the sound of a Slitheen exploding.

"Hannibal?" Rose questioned Harriet.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar."

"Oh, well there you go then," said Rose.

They all toasted the moment with a glass of port from the decanter, Jenny almost forgetting about the Slitheen outside their doorstep… quite literally.

"_Listen to this," _said Mickey suddenly, and they heard the noise of someone speaking on the TV. _**"Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty five seconds."**_

"What?" questioned the Doctor, looking baffled.

"_**Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mothership. I beg of the United Nations, pass and emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival, because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."**_

"He's making it up," said the Doctor instantly.

"Do you think they'll believe him?" asked Harriet.

"They did last time," said Rose, frowning.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

"What happens if they release the defense code?" Jenny asked.

"The Slitheen will go nuclear."

"But why?" asked Harriet.

The Doctor didn't answer her, instead he pressed the button on top of the door that released the shutters. Jenny didn't have to ask what he was doing as she walked so she was just slightly behind him, ready to fight at a moment's notice. She was not about to let her father die, nor any of the people in the room. She would fight to the death for them.

"You get the codes," the Doctor started, surprising the Slitheen, "release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back, World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

The female alien tilted her head slightly. If Jenny wasn't mistaken, and if it was possible to read their facial expressions, the Slitheen looked rather pleased. "And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away."

"But you'll destroy the planet!" Jenny exclaimed, stepping forward so she was next to her father and addressing the Slitheen. "This beautiful place! What for?"

"Profit," it was her father who answered her. "That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert."

"The sale of the century," said the female alien, "we reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives," the Doctor yelled.

"Bargain," said the female alien, as though this were nothing.

"I give you a choice," growled the Doctor. "Leave this planet or I'll stop you."

"What you? Trapped in your box?"

"Yes. Me."

The Doctor pushed the button again and the shutters crashed together for the second time.

* * *

"_Alright Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do." _Said Jackie the next morning.

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid," said Harriet suddenly.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked her boyfriend.

"_There's loads of emergency numbers. They're all on voicemail."_

"Voicemail dooms us all," sighed Harriet, while Jenny leaned over to Rose and asked what a voicemail was. "A voicemail is when you can't talk to someone on their cell phone because they won't or can't answer your call, so you just leave a message. If we could just get out of here," Rose added, sounding frustrated.

"There's a way out," said the Doctor to the surprise of everyone.

"What?" asked Rose.

"There's always been a way out," he said.

"Then why don't we use it?" asked Jenny, confused as to why her father hadn't mentioned this before.

"Because I can't guarantee that Rose or Jenny will be safe."

"_Don't you dare," _Jackie said in a firm voice. _"Whatever it is, don't you dare."_

"That's the thing," said the Doctor. "If I don't dare, everybody dies."

"Do it," said Rose.

"You don't even know what it is, you'd just let me?" the Doctor asked, looking shocked.

"We'll do whatever it takes," Jenny said, "I'd give my life to keep you all safe."

"Yeah," agreed Rose.

"_Please," _begged Jackie. _"Doctor please, she's my daughter. She's just a kid."_

"You think I don't know that?" the Doctor growled. "I have my daughter here with me too, I know the danger, but this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's standing up and making decisions because nobody else will."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Rose asked quietly.

"I could save the world, but lose you. Both of you," the Doctor said, glancing between Rose and Jenny.

"Except it's not your decision Doctor," Harriet spoke up, "it's mine."

"_And who the hell are you?" _asked Jackie, not too kindly in Jenny's opinion.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people, and on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it."

"How do we get out?" asked Jenny. "Is there running involved? It's kind of boring waiting here…"

"We don't get out," said the Doctor. "We stay here, no matter how bored you are."

The Doctor walked over to get the Emergency Protocols from the Red Box Harriet had been carrying. "Use the Buffalo password," said the Doctor. "It overrides everything."

"_What are you doing?" _asked Jackie worriedly.

"_Hacking into the Royal Navy," _said Mickey as though this were something he did every day and wasn't concerned by it. "_We're in. Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles of the coast of Plymouth."_

"Right, we need to select a missile," said Jenny.

"_We can't go nuclear. We don't have the defense codes," _Mickey informed him.

"We don't need it," said the Doctor. "All we need is an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

"_Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A."_

"That's the one," said her father, "select."

"_I could stop you," _they heard Jackie, though none of them paid her any attention. There were more pressing matters at hand, and Jackie knew it too.

"_Do it then," _said Mickey. There was no response from Jackie.

"You ready for this?" asked the Doctor.

"_Yeah," _said Mickey.

"Mickey the idiot," said her father, "the world is in your hands… fire."

They heard the click of a mouse. Jenny turned to look at all of the people in the room, knowing that this might be the last time she'd ever see them. She hadn't wanted to die before, but now she knew that she'd rather go down fighting for something as precious as the Earth. There were good people on it. She even felt a sort of fondness for Jackie, despite the length Jackie went to to make sure she wasn't at home on Earth.

She glanced at her father, knowing that this must have been one of the hardest decisions for him to make. She wondered if he'd already made this decision before Jenny was born, or if this was happening because of Jenny. She sincerely hoped it wasn't the latter, because that would mean they would all be dead in minutes.

"_Oh my God," _whispered Jackie.

Harriet got up and touched the metal shutters. "How solid are these?"

"Not solid enough," said the Doctor regretfully. "Built for short range attack. Nothing this big."

"Alright, now I'm making the decision," Rose spoke up, and they all turned to look at her. "I'm not going to die. We're going to ride this one out. It's like what they say about Earthquakes –" Jenny had never heard of an Earthquake before. She'd heard of a Groundquake though. They were probably the same thing. "-you can survive them by standing under a doorframe. Now this cupboard is small so it's strong, come and help me. Come on."

Harriet was the first one over there. Jenny was close to following, but if she was going to die, she wanted to die next to her father. She stayed by his side.

"_It's on radar," _said Mickey.

Rose and Harriet started raiding the cupboard, throwing random things outside of it while trying to get a clear space.

"_Counter defense five five six!" _Mickey yelled.

"Stop them intercepting it!" the Doctor yelled back.

"_I'm doing it now."_

"Good boy."

"_Five five six neutralized," _said Mickey in relief.

"Here we go," said Harriet, pulling Jenny over to the cupboard by the arm. "Nice knowing you all. Hannibal!"

Jenny let out a yell and clutched onto the doorframe for dear life as a loud crash sent a fireball blowing off the ionic doors and shaking the cupboard. If that wasn't bad enough, the whole thing started turning over, rolling through the remains of the building inside its steel shell.

Then there was silence. Jenny could hear her breath coming in rapid gasps, which she tried to cover up. Her father pushed the steel door off, and Harriet stepped out. "Made in Britain," she said.

"Oh my God!" yelled a man, rushing towards the four of them. "Are you alright?"

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crises is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news!" she added when the man hesitated.

"Yes ma'am!" he said, before racing away, most likely to the ambassadors.

"This is going to need some major cleanup," said Jenny, looking around.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out," agreed Harriet. "Oh, Lord, we haven't even got a Prime Minister!"

"Maybe you should have a go," said the Doctor in an odd voice that caught Jenny's attention at once.

"Me? Huh! I'm only a backbencher."

"I'd vote for you," said Rose.

"Now, don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on!" she yelled, making her way down the pile of rubble and headed towards a group of people. "We're safe! The Earth is safe! Sergeant!" Jenny could still hear Harriet.

"I thought I knew the name," said the Doctor suddenly. "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age."

"The crises has passed!" Harriet was still yelling. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have something to say to you all here today. Mankind stands tall, proud, and undefeated. God bless the human race."

* * *

Rose was bombarded by Jackie as soon as they walked into her flat in a crushing hug. The Doctor left to go back to the TARDIS, and for once Jenny decided to stay in the same room as Jackie without him. She wanted to be near Rose.

They were watching TV, where Harriet Jones was speaking.

"_Mankind stands tall, proud –"_

"Harriet Jones. Who does she think she is? Look at her, takin' all the credit. Should be you on there! My daughter saved the world!" Jackie informed the TV.

"I think the Doctor and Jenny helped a bit," said Rose.

"Alright then, them too." Said Jackie grudgingly, surprising Jenny. "You should all be given knighthoods!"

"That's not the way my dad does things," said Jenny, trying her luck at talking to Jackie. "No fuss. He just moves on… he's not too bad if you give him a chance, my dad."

Jackie sighed, "Your father's good in a crises, I'll tell you that."

"Oh, now the world has changed," Rose laughed. "You're saying nice things about him."

"Well, I reckon I've got no choice," said Jackie. "There's no getting rid of him since you're infatuated."

Jenny pretended not to hear this, partly because she couldn't think of her dad with anyone, and partly because she knew that they did have something going on.

"I'm not infatuated," said Rose quickly.

"What does he eat?" Jackie asked Jenny suddenly. "What do you both eat?"

"I… how do you mean, eat?" asked Jenny, as though she'd never heard of the word before. She had of course, she just hadn't been expecting that question from Jackie Tyler's mouth of all people.

"I was going to do shepherd's pie," Jackie explained. "All of us. A sit-down, 'cos I'm ready to listen. I wanna learn about you two and him, and that life you lead. Only, I dunno, he's an alien… and so are you. For all I know, you guys eat grass and safety pins and things."

"We'll have shepherd pie," said Jenny with a smile. "Never had it before, but it sounds good. I've had pie of course, just not shepherd…"

"You're going to cook for them?" Rose asked, shocked.

"What's wrong with that?" asked Jackie.

"He's finally met his match," said Rose, suddenly laughing.

"You're not too old for a slap you know," Jackie threatened, but Rose didn't seem bothered. "You can go and visit your Gran tomorrow. You'd better learn some French. I told her you were in France. I said you were au-pairing."

She was interrupted by Rose's cell phone ringing. Rose glanced at the screen for a moment before answering. "Hello?"

"_Right, I'll be a couple hours, then we can go." _Jenny heard her father's voice. Jackie left the room, leaving them to talk to each other and sort things out.

"You've got a phone?" asked Rose in surprise.

"_You think I can travel through space and time and I haven't got a phone? Like I said, couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal. There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up."_

"Er, my mom's cooking," said Rose awkwardly.

"_Good. Put her on a slow heat and let her simmer."_ Jenny rolled her eyes at his reply.

"She's cooking tea. For us," said Rose.

"_I don't do that,"_ said the Doctor straight away.

"She wants to get to know you," pleaded Rose.

"_Tough. I've got better things to do."_

"Give me that," Jenny snapped at Rose, swiping the phone away from her, only for Rose to tell her that it was upside down. Flipping it the right way, Jenny started to talk into the phone.

"You know, you've finally started to make a good impression, and you're throwing it away. You're not only taking away a chance at being closer to Rose," she said pointedly, "but you're taking that choice from me away as well. I want to get to know Rose's family, and before you even consider saying that you'll leave us behind, listen to this. I know you won't, because you picked up Rose, a stranger, and don't pretend like I didn't know this. Then you picked me up, another stranger, so don't you dare say that you'd rather travel alone! I know you in the future, and yeah maybe you're a bit different, but you're both the same in traveling alone. You don't like it. You've never liked it. In the future, you hated me, I mean you really hated me because I was your daughter. Then I made the right choice, and you know what? That right choice is what led me to being a better person, not just a soldier, but a person who could make her own choices without having it taken away from me because my father was too afraid to stand up for himself. You know what you'll be if you leave us behind? A coward. The lonely man who leaves his daughter and companion behind because you don't want a cup of tea! You know, I thought that maybe you – you – wouldn't mind family, but if you mind it so much then why even keep me around? Do you have nothing better to do then string me along like some puppet – ah ah!" she snapped when the Doctor made a move to speak. "You can either come over here and have some tea, or you can take the cowardly way out and be alone, picking up some other person maybe because you can't stand the feeling. I searched the universe for you, and this is what I get? Someone who's scared to be near someone else's family? Someone pretending they like their own daughter? Prove to me that I'm wrong, and I'll never say anything like this again. Prove it to me, that you care about me and Rose, and do the right thing, like you made me do so long ago…er…in the future that is. Just… please…"

There was silence on the other end of the phone, then a loud beeping noise. "What's that?" Jenny asked, taking the phone away from her ear.

"That would be the sound of him hanging up," said Rose, looking forlorn. Jenny felt her fists clench – had he honestly just abandoned her because he didn't want to spend just a small amount of time, not even an hour, with Rose's family? Maybe she was wrong and he didn't care about her and Rose. She took a shaky breath and sat down on the couch, somehow feeling even worse than before. "Sorry," she muttered to Rose. "I'm really sorry."

Before Rose could reply, there was a loud whining noise, and the TARDIS appeared right in their living room.

"I think you may have made an impression on him," said Rose, sounding shocked, as the Doctor walked out of the TARDIS. He looked rather grumpy, but at least he wasn't leaving them behind. Unless he felt like yelling at Jenny face-to-face rather than talking through a communicator – er – cell phone.

He spotted Jenny, but didn't say anything, instead he walked into the kitchen where Jackie was. Rose and Jenny jumped up and followed after him, wondering what was about to happen. Jackie looked surprised to see him there.

"Oh, um, Jenny told me you liked shepherd pie, so I made some for you… and some tea…"

"Thanks," said the Doctor, but Jenny could tell it was rather forced. She didn't meet his gaze as they all sat down at the kitchen table, but she could feel his eyes boring holes at her. She didn't want to see his facial expression. Jenny wasn't exactly sorry for saying what she said, but she hadn't thought of how awkward it would be if the Doctor listened to her.

"So…" started Jackie, trying to break the silence. "would you prefer to have some Ameratto? I got it at Christmas Eve…"

* * *

Jenny had been scared that her father would walk out, but he had started to relax within the first fifteen minutes maybe, and they stayed there for longer than Jenny had thought they would.

They were waiting outside the TARDIS, Mickey sitting on a rubbish bin next to them, as a little boy scrubbed off the words 'Bad Wolf' that he had apparently spraypainted on the side of the TARDIS.

"Good lad," said the Doctor. "Graffiti that again and I'll have you. Now, beat it."

The boy wasted no time in running off.

"I just went down to the shop," Mickey said, "and I was thinking, you know, like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public. And here it is." He held out a newspaper and showed it to them, Jenny read the headline and rolled her eyes. 'Alien Hoax'.

"How could they do that?" demanded Jenny. "They saw it!"

"They're just not ready," said the Doctor. "Humans are happy to believe in something that's invisible, but if it's staring them in the face, nope, can't see it. There's a scientific explanation for that. They're thick."

"We're just idiots," Mickey sighed.

"Well, not all of you," the Doctor admitted.

"Yeah?"

He handed Mickey a circular disc, and Jenny recognized it as a CD. "Present for you, Mickey. That's a virus. Put it online. It will destroy every mention of me. I'll cease to exist."

"What do you want to do that for?" asked Mickey.

"Because you're right," said the Doctor, "I am dangerous. I don't want anybody following me."

Jenny whipped her head around as Jackie and Rose came around the corner.

"How can you say that and then take her with you?" asked Mickey, staring at Rose.

"You could look after her," said Jenny, "come with us."

"I can't. This life of yours, it's just too much. I couldn't do it… don't tell her I said that," he added quickly as Rose and Jackie approached them.

"I'll get a proper job," Jackie was saying, "I'll work weekends. I'll pass my test, and if Jim comes round again, I'll say no. I really will!"

"I'm not leaving because of you," Rose answered, "I'm travelling, tha's all. And then I'll come back."

"But it's not safe!" Jackie whined in one last desperate attempt at keeping her daughter with her. Jenny didn't have a mum, so she was very interested in how Rose interacted with hers.

"Mum," said Rose sincerely, "if you saw what's out there, you'd never stay home."

"Got enough stuff?" the Doctor asked Rose.

"Last time I stepped in there, it was a spur of the moment," said Rose, looking at the TARDIS. "Now I'm signing up. You two are stuck with me." Rose handed the Doctor her rucksack and turned to Mickey, "Come with us, there's plenty of room."

"No chance," said Jenny, shaking her head, covering up for Mickey.

"He's a liability," added the Doctor, "we're not having him on board."

"We'd be dead without him," Rose argued.

"My decision is final," said the Doctor firmly.

"Sorry," said Rose, and gave Mickey a quick kiss goodbye.

"Good luck," said Mickey, "yeah."

"You still can't promise me," Jackie said to the Doctor. "What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you, Doctor, and she's left all alone standing on some moon a million light years away? How long do I wait then?"

"You don't need to worry, Jackie," said Jenny. "If anything happens to the Doctor, I'll be with Rose, I know how to work the TARDIS," she lied, "I'll get her home to you."

"Mum, you're forgetting, it's a time machine," said Rose patiently. "I could go travelling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time I get back, yeah, ten seconds would have passed. Just ten seconds, so stop worrying. See you in ten second's time, yeah?"

Jackie pulled her daughter into a tight hug before letting her go, looking very reluctant. Rose followed the Doctor and Jenny into the TARDIS. Mickey gave a wave that only Jenny saw, and she gave a wave back.

**Alright, chapter three. How are you guys liking it so far? In case you were wondering (spoilers for those who haven't seen the season 7 finale!) the reason the TARDIS was so big in the beginning is what happened to the Doctor's TARDIS in that graveyard (only it's not the Doctor's TARDIS, I just sort of made this TARDIS up. Maybe that's what humans are mistaking spaceships now, fun though right?). **

**Please review, or the Slitheen will come and get you.**

**Oh yeah, and I'm planning on updating this every Friday. How's that sound? **


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